American God Eater: Wyatt Colt
by Masked Spider
Summary: His name is Wyatt Colt, one of the American Branch's first new types and he's just been transferred to the Far East Branch. While he's always heard the Far East Branch was rough, nothing can quite prepare him for the insanity to come as he fights Aragami, deals with a no-nonsense Russian girl with a cool hat, and the unpredictability that is the First Unit. (Follows the anime).
1. Welcome to the Far East Branch

Welcome to the Far East Branch

Disclaimer: God Eater and its characters are the property of Bandai and its respective owners. I only own Wyatt Colt and my other OCs.

American Branch: Demolished City Tunnels

Here they come, Wyatt thought as he peeked out from behind a large piece of rubble, Aragami, the creatures who seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere one day, in all shapes and sizes to drive the world into ruins. Wyatt noted the advance of what looked like a dozen ogre tails, medium-sized Aragami with two large, chicken-like legs, massive jaws, and a tail which curved on both sides.

This day is just # # # fantastic so far, he thought as he moved his head back behind the large piece of rubble and examined his tattered appearance. It wasn't pretty, with the absence of his signature gray goggles, numerous slash marks in his gray and blue jacket and a few holes in his black pants.

Adding to that, blood was seeping from a couple of wounds on his chest and lower back which, while not serious, especially for a new type like him, were still a bit painful and caking his blue undershirt in blood. But what had him most concerned right now was his iron and blue colored God Arc, which he'd dubbed Vajra's Bane. The curved blade had sustained a little damage during all the fighting and he was out of ammo, a problem which could be easily solved by simply devouring one of the approaching Aragami with his weapon.

Well simple, if not for the fact that he'd been running and fighting for what seemed like hours, and now his weapon needed its daily dose of bias factor, otherwise it would go wild and he wouldn't be able to control it anymore. "Only got one of these left," Wayne whispered aloud as he pulled out the injector with the bias factor.

What to do, he thought, if he injected the bias factor into Vajra's Bane now he'd be able to make it out of this mess, but there was no telling how much longer it would take him to make it back to the surface and signal a chopper, and if the effects of the bias factor wore off.

A sudden jolt of pain shot through Wayne's body as he felt his weapon becoming unstable, the Oracle cells in his body and the weapon starting to go out of control. Better make my mind up quick, he thought as he glanced at the injector and then at his weapon. With the sound of the Aragami growing closer by the second, Wayne finally made his decision.

Far East Branch Airspace: One Month Later

Wyatt awoke with a start as he looked around the cargo plane he was on. I guess it's true what they say, he thought as he rubbed his eyes, it's hard to get any sleep on a plane, especially when you got a repeat nightmare popping up whenever it feels like it. Shaking his head a little to rid himself of any remaining drowsiness, Wyatt readjusted his goggles over his eyes, then, checking to see that his duffle bag and weapon were secure, he unbuckled his harness and went to the front of the aircraft.

"Where we at right now," he asked the pilot when he reached the front of the plane. "About fifteen minutes out," responded the pilot, "So you'd best get any loose gear secured if it ain't already and get strapped in yourself in another couple of minutes."

"You got any idea how friendly folks are in this part of the world," asked Wyatt as he looked out the front window of the aircraft at the ruined city below. "About like any other branch of Fenrir," responded the pilot, "Trying to save the world, so don't be surprised if some of them seem all business."

"Maybe that's the real reason they called me down here," said Wyatt, "They don't need a fighter, they just lost the last guy there with a sense of humor."

"Well whatever the reason," said the pilot, "Good luck out there, I hear the Far East branch is rough territory." "Well if I am to be a comedian, or a fighter for that matter, I must learn to thrive under pressure," replied Wyatt as he turned and headed back for the cargo bay.

The rest of the flight was, fortunately, uneventful as far as sightings of Aragami went. As soon as he arrived, Wyatt was rushed onto a jeep which drove surprisingly quickly to the gates of the Far East Branch headquarters which, like the American branch of Fenrir back home, was a gigantic round wall encircling what appeared to be a massive shantytown with a large, highly advanced looking structure in the center, the main headquarters building.

"So quick question," Wyatt asked the driver, having to raise his voice a bit due to the speed they were going, "What's the commanding officer like at this branch? He a nice guy or is he more like-?" "If you want to know about Major Amamiya, from what I hear, 'she' is a heck of a commanding officer, but also has a look that will bore right through you," Replied the driver.

"Oh is that all," said Wyatt, trying to sound nonchalant, "And here I was expecting a cranky old guy, is she hot at least?" "Oh yeah," Replied the driver with a slight smirk as they sped on down the road.

One Very Fast Jeep Ride Later

Wyatt was dropped at the front gate as the guards double-checked his ID before ushering him into the main entrance. Wyatt walked at something of a leisurely pace as he took in the surroundings of what would be his new home. The halls of the Far East Branch were much like the headquarters back home, except with a lot more Japanese writing.

Gonna have to get used to that, thought Wyatt as he hefted his duffle bag higher on his right shoulder while lugging the overly large Vajra's Bane, which was currently in its own specialized case, through the halls, trying his best not to hit any of the staff, or walls, or the floor for that matter.

Finally, after several minutes of walking, and sign reading, Wyatt reached the central command center, a room filled with multiple monitors and computer terminals, all showing images of the outside world, some with Aragami, some with God Eaters fighting the Aragami, and some which showed only the images of the ravaged earth.

There was an operator at each terminal, typing away as they relayed information from one person to another. "And just who are you," a stern, commanding voice from the center of the room caught Wyatt's attention as he looked towards the source to see a dark-skinned woman in a white Fenrir uniform, and a very business-like frown on her face.

"That question was directed at you?" The woman said, sounding a little annoyed now. "Oh uh," Wyatt said dropping his duffle bag and weapon to the floor, the latter of which made a resounding clang as it landed while he stood saluted out of habit, "New type God Eater Wyatt Colt of the American Branch, am I addressing Major Amamiya?"

"You are," replied Amamiya as she pulled out an electronic notepad and started accessing a few files, "Ah yes, Mr. Colt, you can put your hand down now." Wayne lowered his hand as ordered, trying his best to relax a little. "You are actually an hour early," Said the Major.

"Favorable tail winds and a crazy jeep driver will do that," Said Wyatt, "And I guess I should thank which ever unit cleared out the area between the airstrip and headquarters, not an Aragami in sight."

"The work of the First Unit," said Major Amamiya, "Which brings me back to the reason you are here."

"The head guys back at the American headquarters said I was going to be assigned to a unit here to help quell the growing number of Aragami in the area," said Wyatt, "To be honest they were kind of vague about it."

"That is because you were ordered here by Director Schicksal," said the Major, "It seems he wishes to see how a new type performs out here, as for your unit assignment that will be determined after we examine your fighting style and see which unit best suits you."

"Sure," said Wyatt, "Uh, permission to put my stuff away first?" "You may," replied Amamiya, "Report back within-." She didn't have the chance to finish her order before several alarms started sounding throughout the command center and several red emergency lights began flashing.

"Commander the Aragami have broken through the outer wall and into the district!" Said one of the operators as she viewed her monitor with a look of grave concern. "Any units in the area?" asked Amamiya.

"All available units are at least 20-30 minutes away," Responded the operator. "What about returning units," asked Amamiya. "The first unit is on its way but they're at least 18 minutes out," replied the Operator.

"Are there any units any closer?" Questioned the Major, the intensity in her voice steadily rising. "None," responded the operator. A tense silence filled the room for several moments, until the silence was broken by the sound of Wyatt clearing his throat.

"Well there's one guy close by," said Wyatt, raising his hand slightly. "Don't be ridiculous," barked Amamiya, "You only just arrived, you don't know the area and you don't have the experience to fight this many Aragami yet."

"Well I can't just sit out either, especially with so few options right now," responded Wyatt as he bent down and opened the case containing his weapon, "And besides, you needed to gauge my combat abilities right?" Wyatt stood up with his weapon resting on his right shoulder. A look of irritation spread across Amamiya's face before she turned to one of the nearby operators.

"Open the gate and be ready to close as soon as Mr. Colt exits the building, and as for you," she turned back to Wyatt, "Your orders are to protect the civilians, and to come back alive."

"Yes mam," said Wyatt with a relaxed salute as he turned to leave, "Oh and could you watch my stuff 'til I get back, I still need to unpack." Without waiting for a response, Wyatt rushed down the hallway, retracing his steps as he came to the still rising gate and slid under it before regaining his footing.

Once he crossed the gate, Wyatt picked up his speed as the blue oracle bracelet on his right arm fed him more oracle cells, increasing his speed to a breakneck pace as the rest of the outer headquarters went by in a blur. Need a better view thought Wyatt as he neared the gate to the outskirts of the base.

Taking a running leap, he kicked off the right wall, then the left wall, as he sailed a couple hundred feet into the air, the wind whipping by him as he landed on the top of the gate. Wyatt quickly surveyed the area beyond the gate until he found what he was looking for, a large section of the headquarters, known as the outer ghetto, part of which was smoldering ruins.

With another long jump, Wyatt sailed through the air for a short time before impacting with the ground again, the force of his landing creating several large cracks, but he hardly noticed as he raced off towards the outer ghetto.

 **Hello everyone and welcome to the first chapter of my first God Eater fan fiction. As I mentioned in my summary, this story will follow the 13 episode anime series and not the actual video game, so if I leave anything from the game out that's the main reason. And just like my other stories, I'm open to comments and suggestions to help make the story better. Be sure to stop in next time as Wyatt experiences his first battle in the Far East Branch.**


	2. That Painful First Day

**That Painful First Day**

Far East Branch: Outer Ghetto

When he arrived the scene was about as he'd expected: chaotic with torn up houses and smoldering piles of ash as soldiers and civilians ran in fear from the many Aragami, with the less fortunate being devoured or cut up, adding to the many puddles of blood staining the ground. And on top of it all, the sky had darkened as rain fell in a downpour. Wasting no time, Wyatt leapt into the fray swinging Vajra's Bane in a horizontal arc as he cut through an ogre tail which had been trying to eat a father and his daughter.

"Get to safety," he called back as he cut through another ogre tail which had charged at him. The civilians yelled their thanks as they ran towards the rest of the retreating crowd. Now where are they coming from, he thought as he turned his attention back to the fray.

Looking around, Wyatt managed to locate a giant hole in the massive wall where several types of Aragami were spilling in, including Zygotes, a type of flying Aragami with a large grey chest, a huge yellowish-orange eye, a massive mouth and blue, wing-like tendrils which seemed to spill out of its back like hair. As he looked on, a number of the aforementioned zygotes descended upon him. Wyatt dodged and swung his weapon, cutting through one, two, then three of the flying monsters with a series of wide swings as a group of nearby soldiers tried, futilely, to shoot the other Aragami near them.

"Don't waste time trying to fight them," shouted Wyatt as he jumped up and embedded his sword in a nearby ogre tail, "Just focus on getting the civilians out of the area."

"But we can-," the soldier was cut off as another ogre tail came charging through the rubble. Wyatt yanked his weapon out of the other Aragami and brought it down on the charging ogre tail, slicing it in half as the other soldiers moved out of the way of its severed head.

"I can handle the Aragami just get the civilians out of here," Exclaimed Wyatt. After a moment of hesitation the other soldiers nodded and headed off to find other civilians while Wyatt jumped over a pile of rubble to find his next target. Suddenly a blast of high pressure air went sailing past him as he just barely stopped in time to avoid getting hit.

Oh great, thought Wyatt as he looked at what appeared to be a large, red armored gorilla with curved pipes sticking out of its back, congous are here too. Wyatt quickly moved to the side as the congou fired another round of high pressure air and quickly advanced towards the large Aragami, dodging and rolling under a few more blasts as he came within striking distance and swung Vajra's Bane in a horizontal arc.

The congou was ready, however, and raised its arm up to block the strike before lashing out with a left hook. Wyatt leapt away, narrowly avoiding the blow as he tried another strike, only to have it knocked away as the congou lowered its head to point one of its chimneys at him. Thinking quickly, Wyatt spun around and avoided the first blast, quickly switching his weapon to its rifle form before he aimed it at the congou's chimney.

He managed to fire just before the congou, hitting its chimney as it was about to shoot another blast, causing a small explosion on the back of the congou who shrieked in pain as its backside was smoldering. Seizing his opportunity, Wyatt quickly switched his weapon back to its sword form and decapitated the congou with a quick swing, destroying its core in the process. Cut that one a little close, thought Wyatt, now what's next?

As if in answer to his thoughts, a fierce roar cut through the air then. Outstanding, he thought with dread, I know what that sound belongs too. Wyatt whirled around as a giant blue lion with steel colored armor, a gray mane, and red rope like projections coming out of its back landed just a few yards away, causing the ground to quake slightly from the force of its landing. A Vajra had arrived on the battlefield. Well, Wyatt thought as he readied his weapon, I guess this is another chance to see if the weapon lives up to the name.

With another roar, both Vajra and God Eater charged. The distant closed quickly between them as the Vajra swung one of its giant paws at Wyatt, who dove beneath it and swung his weapon at the Vajra's other front paw, putting a large cut into the Vajra's leg. The Vajra reared back, crying in rage as Wyatt slid out from underneath another slash of claws and rolled away, putting some distance between him and the Vajra.

So far so good, he thought while getting back to his feet, I managed to piss him off. Suddenly several shots rang out as large energy bullets impacted against the Vajra's armor, causing it to roar out in pain.

"Don't worry back up's here," yelled a voice far behind him. Wyatt risked a glance behind him and saw an orange-haired God Eater with a rifle variant firing off more shots at the Vajra, causing it to retreat. Wyatt responded by quickly shifting his weapon to its rifle form and fired at a Zygote just above the orange-haired guy's head.

"Don't forget to watch your own back too," said Wyatt as the orange-haired guy nodded weakly, obviously not believing how close he'd come to being eaten. Wyatt turned his attention back to the area in front of him and shifted his weapon back to sword form as more Aragami began to show up. Even with two of us working together our chances aren't good, he thought as he cut through another ogre tail, but we can't quit now.

All of a sudden the air seemed to shimmer with electrical energy as a light shined in the distance. Oh # #, thought Wyatt as he activated the shield on the front of his blade and dived to the right and down into a large crater formed by all the rubble, narrowly avoiding a blast of lightning. The Vajra's back, he realized as he deactivated his shield to get a better view as he saw the Vajra charging up another blast of lightning on its back, its whole form crackling with electricity. But this one wasn't directed at Wyatt, the Aragami's vision was directed elsewhere.

"Look Out!" yelled Wyatt, a second too late as the Vajra sent a blast of lightning at the orange-haired God Eater, blasting him off of the mound he'd been standing on. Wyatt swore as he saw him fall to the ground, his skin badly charred as the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. This is bad, he thought as another couple of zygotes began charging at him, really really bad.

As he was going to swing at the charging zygote, the Aragami was suddenly sliced in half by a figure wearing a blue coat. Did he just fall out of the sky, thought a confused Wyatt as he looked up, noticing that a helicopter had just arrived. Another figure fell from the copter, firing her arc as she descended, each blast destroying one Aragami after the other until the group which had been trying to surround Wyatt was reduced to ashes.

The ground thudded with her landing as Wyatt got his first look at her outfit, a backless top shirt which didn't cover her arms and was only held on by the two green cords which were tied behind her neck, and a pair of black pants which were encircled by a black cloth which hung around her waist.

"Are you alright newbie," she asked as Wyatt got over his surprise at their entrance. "I'm not dead yet," he replied, still a little dumbstruck, "So, good so far." Another loud thud shook the ground, drawing everyone's attention as a tall man with shoulder length dark hair, a brownish red coat and a God Arc which looked like a giant red chainsaw came walking out of the smoke cloud he'd created upon landing.

"What a pain, we just got back," said the man, who Wyatt assumed was the leader, as he advanced, puffing a cigarette with one hand while swinging his weapon at oncoming Aragami with the other hand.

"Can you still fight," asked the woman as more Aragami began approaching. "If not, go and hide," said the blue coated God eater, who Wyatt finally noticed had white hair and brown skin, "The First Unit will handle this."

After a moment of speechlessness, Wyatt regained his voice, and his attitude. "Are you kidding me," said Wyatt as he leapt over both members of the First Unit and cut another flying Aragami in half, "I may be tired, but I'm nowhere near done yet."

A small smile formed on the lips of the woman while the white-haired guy remained impassive. In another moment, all three of them charged, Wyatt and blue coat slashing through one Aragami after another while the woman shot down any they might have missed with deadly accuracy as they made their way towards the man with the chainsaw blade.

Suddenly a pair of screams rang out drawing Wyatt's and the woman's attention. A mother and her infant were cornered by an ogre tail and they were too far away for either Wyatt or blue coat to reach in time by running.

"Sakuya, do you have a shot!" yelled the chainsaw God Eater. The woman, Sakuya as Wyatt had heard, tried to bring her weapon up to fire but was blocked by another group of flying Aragami. "I don't have a shot," Sakuya said.

Without another moment's hesitation, Wyatt hit the switch on Vajra's Bane which transformed it into its rifle form. "I got one," he said as he fired a blue blast of energy out of the end of his weapon which cut straight through the ogre tail's head, destroying it completely.

"Your Arc," said Sakuya, a look of surprise on her face, "It can transform." "Oh Yeah, I'm what they call a new-type," said Wyatt, "But we can discuss that later, right now we have a bigger problem." As if on cue, a fearsome roar cut through the air. The Vajra, which had been occupied for a bit by the helicopter which had brought the First Unit, was now back and did not look pleased.

"Sakuya, Newbie," yelled the First Unit leader, "Circle to opposite sides and provide cover fire." "On it," said Sakuya, drawing her attention back to the battle as she circled left, firing at the Vajra. "Uh right," said Wyatt as he ran and circled in the opposite direction, firing his own weapon.

The Vajra howled in pain as the barrage of shots impacted against its blue skin while blue coat and brown coat were busy attacking its front legs. The barrage continued, pushing the Vajra back, until Wyatt noticed something strange, Sakuya had just stopped firing.

"I'm out of ammo," he heard Sakuya yell. "# #," Wayne cursed aloud as he noted his own supply of ammo was also getting low. I only brought enough for a small encounter not a battle, he remembered as he continued firing, aiming his shots a little more carefully now.

The Vajra, now under attack by only three opponents began charging the electrical tendrils on its back and started firing in random directions, forcing the two blade wielders to leap away from the large bolts of electricity which were shooting across the battlefield. This Vajra is an extra tough one, thought Wyatt when he noticed the air around him had started to shimmer and crackle with electrical energy.

"Oh # # #," he swore as he realized what was about to happen and leaped off the pile of rubble. The air superheated as a large bolt of electricity obliterated the location Wyatt had just been while other bolts of electricity struck out in all directions, one of them managing to catch Wyatt's booted foot as a surge of electricity shot through his body, causing his muscles to spasm painfully and forcing a surprised yelp from him as he tumbled down the rubble and onto the ground, laying on his back only a few hundred feet away from the Vajra. Wyatt tried to move but was only partially successful as the Vajra moved closer, eyeing its newfound prey.

At least the rain's stopped, thought Wyatt as he managed to lift his head and upper body up enough to look up and into the Vajra's gaze. Nice eyes buddy, he remarked to himself as he drug his weapon, still in rifle form, around slowly and tried to lift it up when his eyes were suddenly drawn to a small green cylinder flying through the air in front of the Vajra's face. Oh boy, cringed Wyatt as he brought his weapon up and tried to close his eyes at the same time, but was too slow as the grenade exploded in a flash of light, blinding both Wayne and the Vajra.

The Vajra roared in pain, as Wyatt fired blindly, hearing the shot impact as the recoil knocked him back down to the ground, his eyes still seeing stars. That wasn't pleasant, thought Wyatt as he listened for a moment to the quickly receding sounds of battle, his eyes closed beneath his goggles as he waited for the pain from the flash grenade to recede. In another moment he was able to open his eyes, noting that the battle had all but ceased.

Wyatt looked around and discovered that the menacing Vajra was now on the ground, nothing but another dead corpse on a field littered with the bodies of all kinds of Aragami. The next thing to draw his attention was the sound of approaching footsteps from behind him.

"Not bad newbie," said the First Unit Leader as Wyatt, feeling too tired to try and roll over, simply tilted his head back to look up at him. "Did we win?" asked Wyatt.

"Sure did," answered the leader, "And another unit has just arrived to clear out the stragglers." "Whew that's good," said Wyatt with a tired sigh as he let his head sink back down to the ground, "I was starting to think I'd never get the chance to unpack."

"No kidding," agreed the Leader, "And nice shot by the way, went straight into the Vajra's mouth." "Lucky shot," corrected Wyatt, "I was actually aiming for one of its eyes before that flash grenade exploded in front of me."

"I'll have to talk to Sakuya about that," remarked the Leader as he took another drag of his cigarette, "What's your name by the way newbie?" "Wyatt Colt," he answered, holding his right hand up, "New type of Fenrir's American Branch." The man smiled at the comment before taking Wyatt's outstretched hand and shaking it. "Lindow Amamiya, welcome to Fenrir's Far East Branch."

 **Wyatt just manages to survive his first day at the Far East Branch, and has had the first of many encounters with the First Unit, heck of a way to start out at a new branch. For those of you who are familiar with some of my other stories, you'll notice this one has a lot more blood and death because, well it's God Eater and there is a lot of blood, So heads up, while I like a lighthearted tone some of this will get dark. That being said, I'm still gonna try to keep it entertaining. And a big thank you to all my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've given this story a read, it's always encouraging whenever I start a new story, and the feed back is appreciated as well. So be sure to stop in next time as Wyatt gets acquainted with the Den and a few of its residents. 'Til next time.**


	3. New Living Space

**New living Space**

Outer Ghetto: Aftermath

"No seriously I'm fine," said Wyatt as the fairly insistent medical team loaded him up on a stretcher and carried him onto the chopper, "I'm just exhausted is all, and a little tingly." "I'm sorry but we have our orders," responded one of the medics as the chopper lifted off.

Well this is just great, thought Wyatt with a sigh, I haven't even been here a full day and they're already putting me on a stretcher, so much for making a heroic exit, oh well, at least I get a helicopter ride back. Deciding to accept his situation for the moment, Wyatt tried making conversation with the blue coated God Eater who Lindow assigned to go back with him in the helicopter. But Wyatt only really managed to learn that his name was Soma and not much else.

Once the helicopter landed, he tried showing the medical staff that he could move perfectly well. But, they rolled him to the medical wing anyway, insisting that they needed to check out his vitals and make sure he didn't have any serious after effects from the Vajra's lightning. It was shortly after this that Major Amamiya walked in.

"How are his vitals," Tsubaki asked the medical team. "He's stable for now," answered the doctor who had been tending to Wyatt, "We've administered some of the bias factor just in case."

"You know I am right here, fully conscious and everything," said Wyatt, trying not to come across too annoyingly as he sat up, "Oh and mission successful and all that, the Aragami are gone for now and the civilians are safe," Wyatt said as he saluted. Major Amamiya turned her gaze upon Wyatt, making him just a bit nervous.

"From the reports I've gotten so far it seems you would have lost your life if not for the arrival of the First Unit," Said Major Amamiya. "Well I did have a few close shaves," said Wyatt as he rubbed the back of his head, "But my mission was to hold off the Aragami and come back alive and I did, I just happened to take a hit of Vajra lightning near the end of the fight."

"Yes you did come back," said Major Amamiya, "on a hospital stretcher." It was at this moment that the door to the medical wing opened up and Lindow walked in.

"Hey Tsubaki go easy on the new guy, he did just get here after all," said Lindow with a slight grin. "You will address me as Major when we are on duty," said Tsubaki, "And why are you here anyway?"

"Everyone on the First Unit is fine so I thought I'd come and see if Wyatt here was okay," Said Lindow. "Fine physically," said Wyatt with a thumbs up, "Mentally I'm kind of nervous."

"He believes himself still fit for duty," said Tsubaki, ignoring Wyatt's comment, "And since you're here you can follow me to the command center to give your report." "Oh yeah, almost forgot about that," said Lindow rubbing the back of his head.

"Does that mean I can go?" questioned Wyatt. "Once the medical team finishes its check on you, you may leave, Hibari will be in the den to direct you to your quarters when you are ready," Replied Tsubaki as she turned to leave with Lindow right behind her. Wyatt let out a sigh as soon as the door closed. So this is the Far East Branch, thought Wyatt, I'm gonna have my work cut out for me.

"Was that really necessary," asked Lindow as he and Tsubaki walked down the hallway to the command center, "He did manage to complete his mission and he was doing more than his part out there when we arrived."

"While that is true, he needs to be reminded what happens to those who get too cocky?" Stated Amamiya. "I know," replied Lindow, "But he doesn't strike me as the cocky type, more like someone who tries to have a good attitude about things."

"And what do you think of his skills?" Asked Tsubaki. "Well that new type weapon of his is pretty handy," said Lindow, "as for his skills he's got a good move or two, with a bit of work he could be a great addition to the team." "And which team would that be?" Asked Tsubaki? Lindow simply smiled as he looked thoughtful for a moment.

The Den

Finally found it, thought Wyatt as he made his way over to the information desk in the center of a large room filled with couches, monitors, and people wandering every which way. This room was apparently called the 'Den' by everyone at the Far East Branch. "Hey I'm looking for a 'Hibari'," said Wyatt as he walked up to the red headed girl at the desk, noting her hair was tied in a pair of braids which pointed out in opposite directions.

"That would be me," said Hibari as she looked up from the terminal. "And you must be the new guy, Wyatt was it?"

"Yeah that's me, the new guy around here," said Wyatt as he rested his elbow on the desk in front of him, "Tsubaki told me you could direct me to my room, oh and do you know where the rest of my stuff got off too, it's not in the command center where I left it?"

"Your Arc has already been delivered to the maintenance room in the engineering division," replied Hibari, "And the rest of your belongings have been moved to your quarters."

"They'd best be taking good care of my weapon," said Wyatt, faking a serious tone, "Vajra's Bane has brought me a long way in the past three months."

"Don't worry Licca is one of the best engineers in Fenrir, your Arc is in good hands," said Hibari, good naturedly. "Well I guess all that leaves is the rest of my stuff," Said Wyatt as he stood up straight, "You, uh, got a map or somethin', I kinda still need to learn my way around."

"Here this should help," said Hibari as she handed him a small, light blue cell phone, and a card key, "Just access the map on the phone and input the room number on the card and you should be able to find it."

"Fancy," said Wyatt, "Now I got two phones, if I get one more do I get a prize?" "Yes, a book with jokes that are actually funny," replied Hibari with a smile.

"Harsh, I'm gonna need to up my game around here, but later, right now I got to find my room in this maze of a headquarters," Said Wyatt with a laugh as he turned to leave.

"Good luck with that," said Hibari happily as Wyatt walked away, "Just come to me if you have any more questions." "I will and with better jokes," replied Wyatt with a wave as he exited the Den, following the map until he finally found his quarters.

With the map's help, Wyatt had much better luck finding his quarters than he did the Den and was happy to discover that his duffle bag and other belongings had indeed, already been delivered. Not bad, Wyatt thought as he looked over the room, not high class by any means but definitely livable. His quarters weren't enormous, but a few features did stand out, such as the large window to look out, a bed, a terminal in the corner, and a desk with a chair and a small couch in the other corner.

Wyatt proceeded to unpack his belongings and then used the terminal to contact his family to tell them what he'd been up to so far, leaving out a few of the parts where he'd nearly died of course.

"Alright then, but try your best to be safe," said his mother after Wyatt had explained how his day had gone up to this point, "You've only been gone a day or so but the family misses you already."

"Don't worry I'll be careful," replied Wyatt with a smile, "Alright now it's been a bit of a day so I'm gonna need to log off for the night." "Alright, get a good night's rest Wyatt," said his Mother. "Night Mom," said Wyatt before hanging up and flopping down on his bed for the night. What a day, he thought to himself as he removed his goggles and set them down next to the bed, wonder what sort of crazy # # tomorrow will bring?

The Next Day

How big is this place, thought Wyatt as he checked his map again, I've been wondering around for several minutes and I'm still not there yet. Wyatt looked up to check some of the signs to make sure he was going in the right direction before he continued onward to his destination. Another couple of minutes of walking brought him to what he hoped was the right door.

"Let's see, engineering division," said Wyatt, more to himself than anyone else as he entered a large room with several machines lining both walls, some of which held the Arcs of off duty God Eaters and some which were currently unoccupied.

Wyatt scanned the room, his ears picking up the sound of power tools. Walking over to the source of the sound, Wyatt was able to make out the silhouette of someone working on a damaged Arc. "Hey is there an engineer named Licca here right now!," he yelled over the sound of the power tools, "Hibari said I needed to talk to them about my weapon."

"That's me," said the engineer as they shut off the power tool and stood up. Wyatt was surprised to see that the engineer was a silver-haired girl around only slightly older than him wearing a white tank top, green overalls and a pair of orange goggles on her head which she pushed up to reveal her grey eyes. "Oh you cannot be serious," said Wyatt, putting his hand to his face.

"What," asked Licca, "is something wrong?" "No I just realized how lucky the other guys at this base are," Replied Wyatt, "If I'd known there was a cute girl here to work on my arc, I would've taken a transfer out here sooner."

"Oh is that all," said Licca with a laugh, "And here I thought it was something serious." "It is serious," stated Wyatt, trying not to smile, "I've had to put up with this grumpy old dude back at the American Branch working on my arc and he's always saying stuff like 'You can't just stab your arc into a Vajra's ##, it's dulls the blade quicker.'"

Licca laughed some more at that comment before speaking, "Thanks, I really needed a laugh right now."

"I've noticed everyone does seem to be in a bit of a somber mood today," said Wyatt, "Why is that?"

"There was a funeral yesterday," said Licca, the smile disappearing from her face as she turned back to the arc she'd been working on, "Eric died during the attack on the outskirts of the base."

Wyatt thought for a moment before speaking. "Was he an orange-haired cannon wielder?" He asked. "Yeah," replied Licca, "He took a full blast of the Vajra's lightning during the attack, by the time the medics arrived it was too late to stabilize him and he died in transit."

Wyatt stiffened a bit before letting his shoulders sag. "I'm sorry," he said, "I was there at the attack too, he tried to help me when that Vajra showed up and I wasn't in time to warn him about the Vajra's lightning blast."

"Please don't blame yourself," said Licca, resting a hand on Wyatt's shoulder, "You know I was told Eric actually mentioned you right before he died."

"He did," asked Wyatt, confused. "Yes," said Licca, "From what I've heard he was laughing and being apologetic, he said 'That new type is something else, he saved me from one Aragami and then I go and get electrocuted by another.'"

Wyatt couldn't help but smirk a little at that comment, "Well I got electrocuted a bit too, so he shouldn't feel too bad." Licca smiled before a look of realization crossed her face. "That reminds me," said Licca, "I never got your name."

"Oh yeah," said Wyatt as he held out his hand, "I'm Wyatt Colt, nice to meet you." "Licca," she replied as she shook his hand, "A pleasure."

Office of Director Schicksal

"The new-type performed at a good level," said Director Schicksal to a wall of large screens, each one showing an image of a different branch director of Fenrir, "Though given the extreme circumstances of the situation it was also likely he would have died had the First Unit not intervened."

"The Aragami are, as always, irritatingly unpredictable," said the director of the American branch, "Had any of us known such an event would transpire, we'd likely would have sent him sooner, or at least with back up."

"Yes it is unfortunate," said Schicksal, "But the new type is still alive, so we should be able to properly gauge his performance now."

"I'm still not quite convinced," said the Director of the Russian Branch, "These new types are to be the next wave of warriors defending humanity, the loss of any one of them is something we must try to avoid." "Do you have any suggestions," Schicksal asked the Russian Director.

"I have already taken the liberty of readying one of our best new type recruits for a transfer to your branch," said the Russian director.

"Does she have field experience," asked Schicksal. "She does not have any actual combat under her belt," replied the Russian director, "But her scores on the simulator are like nothing we've ever seen, and having another new type at your branch can only help your situation improve."

Schicksal thought the proposal over for a moment before answering. "Very well," said Schicksal, "I'll make the arrangements for the new arrival, send her over when you can." "She's already on her way," replied the Russian director.

 **Wyatt's finally settled in, but he won't be getting comfortable anytime soon by the sound of it. Hello again everyone, and as always a huge thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've kept up with the story so far, especially considering it's from a less well-known franchise. And for those of you waiting for more Aragami slaying, don't worry, we'll get to it very soon. So be sure to stop in next time as Wyatt is sent out on his first official mission from the Far East Branch. 'Til next time.**


	4. From Russia With Pain

**From Russia With Pain**

Far East Branch Airspace

The ride had been fairly uneventful so far, thought the girl as she adjusted the large black and red beret which sat on her head as she looked out the window. At first glance the only thing anyone might find strange about the young, blue-eyed, silver-haired Russian girl was her attire, which included a black, vest-like shirt which zipped up in the front while still leaving her midriff exposed, two black gloves, the left of which had went up to her elbow while the other stopped at her wrist where her black and red oracle bracelet rested on her right arm.

Her waist was adorned with a red, plaid skirt which stopped just above her knees, and a pair of black, knee-length boots with red soles. The girl let out a sigh as she shifted position a little, glancing at her personal doctor, Oguruma was his name, who sat next to her, a brown-haired man wearing a white lab coat. The doctor said another new type was already at the Far East Branch, she thought as she gazed out the window again, I doubt he's anywhere near as good as me, but it still might be interesting just to see how they matched up against her in skill.

As she turned to look back out the window, the movement of several dark shapes among the clouds caught her attention. In the next instant, a swarm of blue figures shot out of the clouds and engulfed one of the jets escorting the plane. The sky lit up as the fighter exploded, forcing the remaining jets to scatter as they desperately tried to outmaneuver the massive swarm of what she could now see where zygotes.

That's not good, she thought as she stood up and moved to get out onto the aisle. "Where are you going?" asked Dr. Oguruma. "The jets won't be able to protect us," she replied as the explosion of another one of the jets sounded outside of the plane. "I'm heading outside," said the girl as she fitted a communicator into her right ear and proceeded down the aisle towards the back of the plane, "Get ready to open the bay doors."

Fenrir Far East Branch: Central Command Room

"We've received a distress call from the transport carrying the Russian new type," Said Major Amamiya as she explained the situation to Lindow and Sakuya, "The First Unit is to be dispatched immediately to escort the new type safely to the Far East Branch."

"Well I'd like to say we'll even gift wrap 'em for ya," said Lindow before shrugging, "Except Soma's out on another mission, so it's just the two of us right now." "That'll have to be enough," stated the Major, "No one else is available from the other units right now."

"It's gonna be rough out there for just the two of us," said Lindow as he rubbed the back of his head before an idea occurred to him, "Hey, what about the new guy?" "I haven't had a chance to assign him to a unit yet," replied Amamiya, "Are you seriously suggesting I send him out with the First Unit?"

"Well we already know he can hold his own," said Lindow, "And the more experience he gets with a unit the better, so I don't see why not." Tsubaki let out a sigh, knowing they didn't have time to argue. "Fine," she said after a moment, "But you'll be responsible for keeping an eye on him." "Well that is part of the job as a leader I suppose," said Lindow with a slight grin.

Fenrir HQ Living Quarters

Man the cafeteria here is something else, thought Wyatt with a satisfied sigh as he walked down the hallway to his room, and bonus I got Hibari to laugh at a joke, at least I think it was the joke she was laughing at, well either way, it's been a good start to the day so far. "Wyatt Colt," said Hibari's voice over the intercom, "Please report for mission sortie."

And there goes the rest of my morning, thought Wyatt as he started moving with much more urgency towards his room, didn't know I'd be called out this soon but I should have time to grab one thing from my room and then-.

Upon opening the door, Wyatt's train of thought stopped completely as he realized that his room for some reason had a lot more bright colors, and a very surprised pink haired girl standing in it wearing only an unbuttoned green, dress-like jacket which reached to her waist, and her underwear.

"Right, my room's the next one down isn't it," Wyatt finally said as innocently as possible.

Fenrir Helipad: A Few Minutes Later

"What in the world happened to you?" questioned Lindow as Wyatt stepped onto the helicopter, God Arc in hand. "Wrong room," replied Wyatt as he rubbed the red, hand-shaped print on his cheek, "Let's just leave it at that."

"Get rejected already," asked Sakuya with a playful smile on her face as the helicopter lifted off. "Fortunately no," replied Wyatt, "Just got in a hurry and opened the wrong door." "Yeah, that's what they all say," remarked Lindow with a grin of his own.

"Anyway," said Wyatt, trying to change the subject, "Since this is my first time serving with this unit, anything I should know?"

"Well as the First Unit leader, I have three orders," Stated Lindow as he held up his hand, "First: Don't Die, Second: If you're life's in danger, run, Third: Hide, wait for your chance to strike and kill 'em."

"I think that's four," commented Wyatt as he indicated that Lindow was holding up four fingers. "Is it," said Lindow, "Guess I miscounted, but the point still stands, on this mission and every other mission, your first priority is to come back alive so long as you're under my command."

"I'll do my best sir," said Wyatt with a relaxed salute, "So anything I need to know about this target we're picking up?" "Well I'm not sure if Tsubaki mentioned it, but the one we're picking up from the Russian Branch is a new type, just like you." "Well now," said Wyatt, "This mission just got a whole lot more interesting."

Fenrir Airspace: Over the Ocean

They had spent a good portion of the flight reviewing the mission details, but even despite going over the numbers more than once, Wyatt still couldn't quite believe the size of the zygote swarm attacking the plane. "That is a lot of zygotes," said Wyatt as they slid open the helicopter doors and readied their weapons. "No kidding," Said Lindow, "If they keep chewing on the fuselage, that plane's gonna go down for sure."

"It's a wonder the plane's even still in the air," remarked Sakuya. "Are we getting any kind of response from the crew," Lindow asked the pilot of the chopper. "Nothing," replied the pilot, "I'm not sure if there's anyone else alive on the plane right now."

Wyatt was wondering the same thing as he strained his eyes to catch even the slightest sign of life from the plane, when he suddenly glimpsed a couple of flashes. What are those, thought Wyatt as he spotted even more flashes before finally seeing a silhouette running on top of the plane.

"Down there," yelled Wyatt over the sound of the helicopter as he pointed. Both Lindow and Sakuya looked where Wyatt was indicating, also catching sight of what could only be their new type target, a girl wearing black and red with a beret-style hat, wielding a red God Arc which she switched from a sword to a Gatling gun as she skillfully took out one zygote after the other.

"She can't handle all of them by herself," said Sakuya. "Pilot," said Lindow, "Get me on the frequency they're using." "Already patched in," replied the pilot as Lindow put his wireless radio in his ear.

"This is Lindow Amamiya, leader of the First Unit, can anyone hear me," Said Lindow over the radio, "Is anyone there?"

"Yes, this is Alisa Ilinichima Amiella," replied the girl over the radio. "We've been sent here to rescue you," said Lindow, "That plane is a goner, but we can open up an escape route at the rear of the plane for you to reach the chopper." "An escape route," questioned Alisa. "No other choice," said Lindow, "We have to abandon the plane if we're gonna have a chance of getting you out of here."

"Sorry," said Alisa over the radio after a pause, "But I don't need to be rescued." "Did she just refuse our help?" Asked Sakuya, surprise evident in her voice. "She can't be that confident about her chances," said Lindow as he tried raising Alisa on the radio, but the girl was no longer answering.

"Well you know what I think," Said Wyatt as he grabbed a few rounds and loaded up his Vajra's Bane, "I think it would suck to come out all this way and leave empty handed." "Even if she just said she didn't need help?" Questioned Sakuya.

"Well she said she didn't need to be rescued," said Lindow, "But she never said we couldn't help." "Oh I see," said Sakuya as she loaded up her own arc and took aim, "Well there are too many Aragami for us to get close to the plane anyway, so."

Sakuya ended her last sentence by firing off a shot and taking down a zygote. Wyatt joined her as both God Eaters fired their weapons into the swarm of Aragami surrounding the plane, felling one after the other.

While they provided support from above, Alisa continued cutting down or shooting any attacking zygote she could on the top of the plane. "She definitely knows what she's doing with that weapon of hers," observed Lindow.

"Yeah no kidding," Said Wyatt as he shot down another zygote. "Here Wyatt," Said Sakuya as she tossed him another shell for his arc, "Don't want you running out of ammo again."

"Thanks," said Wyatt, "But if I recall, you ran out first in that last battle." "It was a long day," retorted Sakuya. "Speaking of which," said Lindow as he observed Alisa fighting down below, "She's about out herself."

As Lindow was watching, Alisa attached an emergency rappelling rope to her belt as she climbed down the side of the plane in pursuit of two of the zygotes who were trying to bite the fuselage on the bottom of the plane. Then, positioning herself carefully, Alisa was able to stand upside down on the bottom of the plane with help from the rope as she took aim and fired at the zygotes. But, just as Lindow had observed, her ammo ran out after a couple of shots, leaving her unable to attack either of the zygotes who were eating the plane's engine.

"Sakuya, do you have a shot?" Questioned Lindow. "The engine's too close to my line of fire," Said Sakuya, "And the distance is too far for a clean shot." That's not good, thought Wyatt as he observed the same problem with his own weapon.

But Alisa wasn't fazed by the situation as she pulled the handle out on her God Arc, transforming it back into sword mode as a large, black mouth suddenly shot out from the blade like a snake and seized one of the zygotes, devouring it on the spot. Alisa then transformed her weapon back into its Gatling gun form, her ammo restored.

"Did she just turn that Aragami into energy," Asked a surprised Sakuya. "It's the new type mechanism," Explained Wyatt, "Using our devour function, we can turn Aragami into extra ammunition, it's pretty handy when we remember to use it."

"You got that right," said Lindow as they watched Alisa open fire on the zygotes underneath the plane, "We may get through this after all." Yeah, thought Wyatt as he took aim with his arc, we just might. As Wyatt was about to fire at another zygote, he noticed one of them suddenly extend a neck-like protrusion from their body as a second mouth opened on top of its head, letting out a guttural, inhuman screeching noise.

"Tell me that one didn't just evolve," said Sakuya as she noticed the Aragami's strange behavior. "It's calling for more of them," said Lindow as he noticed another swarm of zygotes emerging from the clouds below. "If they swarm us now we're finished," said Sakuya with a slightly grim tone in her voice.

"Not if we move quickly, pilot get us closer to the plane," said Lindow, grabbing his God Arc, "If we can retrieve Alisa now, we'll be able to get out of here, Sakuya you stay here and provide support fire, newbie you're with me."

"Got it," Said Wyatt, "I've never fought on top of a plane before." "Well today's your lucky day," said Lindow with a smirk.

Alisa was just finishing off the last of the zygotes underneath the plane, when two of them managed to slip past her line of fire. No you don't, thought Alisa as she jumped off of the plane, using the rope line to swing herself around into firing position as she shot down the two escaping Aragami in midair. Alisa then twisted her body around in the air as she grabbed onto the ladder on the side of the plane with one hand, the other holding onto her weapon.

As she was making her way back to the top of the plane, she noticed two figures descending from the chopper above the plane. As she climbed onto the roof, she felt the impact from both of their landings as they slid a short distance before crouching down to avoid sliding any further. "The situation's changed," said Lindow as he pointed behind him at a second wave of oncoming zygotes, "So I think it'd be best if you came with us-hey!"

Alisa didn't appear to hear anything Lindow said as she rushed past him, making her way to the back of the plane. "Wait you need-," Lindow was cut off as he was forced to block a charging zygote, "Get her back here Wyatt!"

"On it," said Wyatt as he shot down a couple of Aragami in his way before running after Alisa, who'd dropped down onto the open cargo ramp at the back of the plane. Dropping onto the ramp after her, Wyatt eyed the dark interior for any sign of the female new type.

"We don't have time play hide and seek," said Wyatt as he spotted Alisa in a dark corner next to the cargo door, "We really need to-." Wyatt was cut off as the she suddenly charged him, lashing out with a kick which knocked Vajra's Bane out of his hand.

"Hey wait a minute," Wyatt tried to say as he held his hand up. But Alisa grabbed his arm and yanked him downward as she attempted to wrap her legs around his head and right arm. But Wyatt saw the move coming in time and managed to wedge his left arm between his head and her leg, preventing her from choking him out. With a bit of struggling, Wyatt was able to free his trapped right arm and force his way out of the hold as he backed up a few feet to give himself some breathing room.

But Alisa wasted no time in leaping back up and closing the gap between them as she came in with a nasty right hook. Why does every new girl I meet today want to hit me, thought Wyatt as he moved out of the way of her first few punches, blocked a kick aimed at his midsection, then caught a chop aimed at his neck as he maneuvered around behind her and forced her against the cargo bay wall, pinning her arm behind her back as he did so.

"Would you cut it out," said Wyatt as he struggled to hold her against the wall, "We don't have time for your personal space issu-OOOFF!" The pitch of Wyatt's voice raised slightly as Alisa brought her foot up into one of his more sensitive areas, causing him to loosen his grip. The girl used the opening to elbow him on the left side of his face, knocking his goggles out of place as he staggered backward. Alisa then spun around, knocking him in the side of the head with a vicious spinning kick, knocking Wyatt's goggles off as he tumbled the rest of the way to the floor.

"It's useless to try forcing me to go with you," said Alisa as she walked over and picked up her arc, "I'm not leaving this plane." As Alisa turned and headed for the door to the plane's passenger section, Wyatt grabbed his goggles and set them back in place over his eyes as he picked himself up off the floor. Alright then, thought Wyatt as he rubbed his left cheek, I guess there's no being nice about this.

Quickly crossing the cargo bay, Wyatt flung open the door ready for a fight this time. "Hey we're not done here little Miss Soviet, we need to-," Wyatt's temper vanished as he looked over the numerous injured passengers and crew members who were lining the hallway as Alisa was setting down another man at the end of the hallway, a doctor by the looks of his white lab coat. "Oh you've gotta be # # joking," whispered Wyatt.

"You'll have to bear with the pain, but I promise we'll be fine," said Alisa to the doctor as she stood up and took a breath, "It's gonna get a little rough, but there's no need to worry, we'll make it to the Far East Branch just like I promised."

"Hey," Wyatt called out to Alisa, "Mind explaining why you didn't bother to mention the dozen or so wounded on board?" "Were they on your list of people to rescue," questioned Alisa in a somewhat hostile tone.

"They could've been on mine if you'd just said something," Snapped Wyatt, his patience wearing thin, "Then we could've avoided all this unnecessary mystery and our fun little tussle in the cargo hold, because nothing makes my day like having my voice raised an octave!"

Alisa, and a few others, raised a curious eyebrow at that statement. After a moment, Wyatt sighed. "Give me a sec," Wyatt said as he keyed his radio on, "Yo Lindow, we got another problem down here."

"What's the issue," Responded Lindow. "Turns out we got wounded on board, and way too many for the chopper to carry." "So that's why she refused to leave," said Lindow, "Well our mission is to get Alisa out of here, so if we just take her we might have a chance."

"Sorry," Said Wyatt, "But I'm a God Eater, and our job is to help and protect people, so you'll understand if I'm against any plan which involves leaving these folks behind."

"I see, Sakuya," said Lindow over the communicator after a pause, "How's our ammo looking." "Unfortunately we're stocked full up here," replied Sakuya with a sigh. "Well in that case I might have a plan, if you're willing to join forces Alisa," said Lindow. Alisa nodded her head in affirmation.

"She's in," confirmed Wyatt over the radio. "Great, then listen up, because this is how it's gonna go down," said Lindow as they readied themselves for the next wave of Aragami.

 **And that brings us to the end of this chapter, but the battle isn't over yet. Hello again everyone, first off, sorry I couldn't get this one out the same day as my other story (busy weekend), but I hope you all enjoy this as a part of your Monday. And as always, I'd like to say thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers for contributing feed back and especially ideas for making this story better and more entertaining. Be sure to stop in next time as the four God Eaters face the rest of the zygote swarm, and Wyatt and Alisa further demonstrate their new type skills. 'Til next time.**


	5. First Class On Zygote Airlines

**First Class On Zygote Airlines**

The plan was fairly simple, Sakuya would provide support fire and call out any of the zygotes which were trying to evolve to call for more help. Alisa and Wyatt's job would be to not only cut down any of the Aragami on the sides of the plane, but also to eliminate any of the ones trying to call for help. As for Lindow, he would be at the top of the plane in the thick of it, slicing through any zygotes that came at him or were directed toward him by Sakuya's support fire.

Wonder if we're making history right now, thought Wyatt as the three of them made their way back onto the top of the plane, the first time two new types have fought side by side against the Aragami, on a # # % plane roof too.

"Launch the flares now," yelled Lindow, snapping Wyatt out of his thoughts as Sakuya fired a high-powered incendiary round which erupted in an impressively large explosion as it decimated a large amount of the bunched up zygote swarm. We really shoulda led with that, thought Wyatt as he took aim at the scattering Aragami and opened fire.

Alisa did the same as they both maneuvered to opposite sides of the plane, picking off as many Aragami from a distance as they could while Lindow, in his usual nonchalant style, cut down any stragglers who managed to slip past Wyatt and Alisa. Sakuya provided support from above by shooting the ones who were flying out of range.

Uh oh, thought Wyatt after a few minutes of fighting as he checked the ammo counter on his weapon, about out. Another zygote came rushing at him as he thought this, time for up close, he decided as he transformed his arc from gun to sword form and sliced the flying Aragami in half. Wyatt bobbed and weaved around the plane a bit as he cut through even more of the airborne monsters, until his communicator crackled to life.

"You've got one evolving on the lower right side of the plane," said Sakuya as Wyatt checked the area she was indicating. Sure enough, a second head was emerging from a zygote hovering by the plane's backside. Well I needed more ammo anyway, he thought as he pulled the handle out on Vajra's Bane, causing a black mouth to shoot out in the shape of a lion's head which stretched across the plane on a long, snake-like neck as it seized the evolving Aragami and devoured it whole.

Glad I remembered to use it this time, thought Wyatt as he switched his God Arc from sword to gun mode and shot down a few more Aragami, before switching again. Shoot, switch, slash, he reminded himself, just like in training. As more zygotes came flying in from all sides, Wyatt cut down another few before one managed to get their jaws on his weapon, preventing him from moving. Nice try, thought Wyatt as he shifted his weapon to gun form, forcing the Aragami to let go as he backed up and shot it point blank.

Alisa's eyes widened at what she just saw. The guy with the goggles, she thought, his weapon can change forms. "Oh yeah I forgot to mention," said Lindow as he cut through another Zygote, "Wyatt over there is a new type, just like you." Alisa took a moment to register what she just heard before responding.

"We aren't even remotely alike," she said finally as she shot down a few more Aragami, then, sighting one which was evolving, she used her arc's devour ability to grab onto another nearby zygote and pull herself into the air as she landed on top of her prey. Wasting no time, Alisa slashed the Aragami to pieces before leaping off of its body onto the evolving zygote, jamming the blade of her weapon into its second mouth, silencing it. Without removing her weapon, Alisa switched her arc to Gatling mode and unloaded burst after burst into the Aragami until it exploded from the inside out. He has some skill, she thought as she dropped back towards the plane, but he's nowhere near my level.

As her feet touched the top of the plane, Alisa went to steady herself, only for her hat to finally blow off her head. Oh great, she thought as she tried reaching for it and missed, I guess I'll need to get one of my-. Alisa blinked as her hat ran into Wyatt's face, causing him to stumble a bit before he managed to remove it and cut through another zygote which had been snapping his jaws at him.

"I got it," said Wyatt, in her opinion quite idiotically, as he spun out of the way of another zygote, before shifting his weapon to gun form and firing. Tell me he isn't trying to impress me now, thought Alisa as she shot down a few more Aragami which had flown her way, and is that music? Taking a quick glance at Wyatt, she noticed he had some sort of digital player on his waist.

"Tell me you're not playing music at a time like this!" Exclaimed Alisa as she changed her arc and cut through another Aragami which had been flying at Wyatt. "It got switched on by accident," Wyatt called back as he shot down another Aragami, "It happens from time to time."

"Why?" questioned Alisa as she turned her back to Wyatt to shoot down another few zygotes. "A better question is why did it have to be 'The Whole New World' song," replied Wyatt as he backed up a bit while shooting down another Aragami, "It's really not fitting to the situation."

"That's your biggest concern," said Alisa as they bumped into each other before turning around and facing each other. "What can I say," said Wyatt with a friendly smile, "I try to enjoy the little things."

"Unbelievable," Alisa said with a sigh as both she and Wyatt switched their arcs to sword form and moved past each other, slicing through the zygotes who'd been trying to attack the two of them from behind. They didn't have a chance to say much more after that as they dealt with the remaining zygotes. After what felt like an hour or more of slashing, blasting, and devouring, the last of the Aragami were finished off.

Wyatt and Alisa stood near the center of the plane, breathing heavily as they took one final look around the plane to make sure that all the zygotes had been taken out. "So that's what you get with two new types," said Lindow as he lit one of his cigarettes and took a quick drag, "Not bad at all."

"Hey Alisa," said Wyatt as he finally caught his breath and walked over to where she was on the plane, "I believe this belongs to you, but remember, in Soviet Russia hat wear you." "What does that mean exactly," asked Alisa as she accepted her hat and placed it back on her head.

"Wait, you've seriously never heard that joke before?" Questioned Wyatt. "Should I have," asked Alisa, "Although that does bring up another question, why did you call me 'little Miss Soviet' earlier?" "Oh you can't seriously be asking," Wyatt was trying not to laugh as he spoke, "You know what let's get below first and I'll explain it to ya there."

"And that's my full report," said Lindow as he talked on board the plane with Major Amamiya over the radio. Alisa and Wyatt were busy helping the wounded, all the while Wyatt was explaining some of the finer points of the history of the former Soviet Union.

"So you're saying both jokes were mostly because I'm Russian," said Alisa as she was checking the head bandage of one of the passengers, "And Russia used to be called the Soviet Union when it was under what you called Communist rule?"

"Yep," replied Wyatt as he adjusted one of the passenger's positions to make them more comfortable, "It was a rather colorful time between our two countries, the Cold War, Vietnam, a competition different economic systems and all that." "You seem to know quite a bit about it," said Alisa as she stood up. "I'm something of a history buff," said Wyatt, "And my parents like to tell me about the world before Aragami."

A look of what may have been pain crossed Alisa's face for an instant, before her neutral expression returned. Wyatt was about to comment on it when Lindow walked over to them. "Well judging by what I just heard I guess you're pretty important to them," said Lindow to Alisa.

"Is my life the only one the Far East Branch values," asked Alisa. "Couldn't say," replied Lindow, "All we know is what we've been told I'm afraid." Alisa clearly wasn't convinced by this answer, but instead of saying anything she simply walked off towards the back of the plane to check on some of the other passengers.

"I don't think she likes us a whole lot," said Lindow. "You're telling me," agreed Wyatt as he rubbed the spot on his head where Alisa had kicked him earlier. "Lindow," said Sakuya over the radio, "We've picked up an Oracle reaction and this one is huge, way bigger than anything we've encountered so far."

"Any idea what it is?" Asked Lindow. "No clue," replied Sakuya, "But it's coming this way." Wyatt and Alisa were already on the move as they grabbed their God Arcs and quickly headed towards the cargo bay.

"Sakuya," said Lindow over his communicator, "Set the pingers on the chopper to full and then jump to the plane." "You're using the copter as a decoy," asked Alisa as they opened the cargo bay doors for Sakuya to enter. "That's the plan," said Lindow, "I just hope it'll last long enough for us to get out of that thing's range."

No kidding, thought Wyatt as he looked out at the sky. An impact on the top of the plane told them that Sakuya had just landed on the roof of the aircraft with the helicopter pilot in tow. As they watched, the helicopter quickly drifted behind the plane as the clouds parted momentarily to reveal the sun, and a horrendous site.

A look of shock crossed everyone's face as a massive shadow in the distant moved in front of the sun. "Oh I picked the wrong day to forget my brown pants," Wyatt blurted out without meaning too. The massive Aragami had an insectoid shape with what appeared to be a bearded head, but that was all anyone could make out as the monster slowly moved back into the clouds.

"You've got that right," said Lindow, "The world really is a vast and interesting place." Neither Alisa nor Wyatt had a response for that as Alisa turned away while Wyatt took another few moments to look at the horizon before heading back into the plane himself.

The rest of the flight was, compared with everything that had happened up to that point, uneventful and in a short time they were setting down at the Far East Branch headquarters. As soon as they arrived, Lindow went off to make his full report, while Alisa and Wyatt were told to report to the office of Johannes Von Schicksal, the director of the Far East Branch. I can understand why he might want to see Alisa, thought Wyatt along the way, but what's he want to see me for?

The director's office was fairly spacious with a large desk, two large book cases, a coffee table in the middle with places for guests to sit, and a painting on the wall of some sort of island or ship in a storm. Tying the room together was a large red and white flag with the symbol of Fenrir on it. The director himself was a somewhat tall man with long blond hair, wearing a black suit, gloves, and a large white coat that looked like something a military scientist might wear.

"We're very fortunate you were able to make it here safely Miss Amiella," said Director Schicksal as he gazed at the painting in his office for a moment, "We've brought you here for-," "The Aegis Project," Alisa finished for him.

The heck is that, thought Wyatt as the conversation continued. "Exactly," said The Director as he walked over towards his desk, "You may not realize it yet, but the future of mankind rests on the shoulders of new types like you and Mr. Colt here."

"Just doin' our part to help," said Wyatt. "And I wish you the very best," said the director, "It is my hope that you'll both live up to our expectations." With that they were dismissed and then led to the elevator by Major Amamiya as she proceeded to take them down to the central command center.

"Mr. Colt," said Amamiya, causing Wyatt to stiffen involuntarily, "Ordinarily after we gauged your performance it would be reviewed by the unit leaders to see where you would fit in, but it seems we've already found a unit for you." "That's great!" Wyatt blurted out, "Er, I mean I'm happy to accept the position mam."

"Well then line up," said Major Amamiya as the elevator came to a stop at the command center. As the doors opened, Wyatt was greeted by the sight of a red-haired boy wearing a sleeveless yellow shirt, a yellow winter cap with orange stripes and a striped scarf around his neck who was standing at attention in front of the tactical board. Guess we're not the only new faces here, thought Wyatt as they lined up.

"Kota Fujiki," said Major Amamiya, "Alisa Ilinichina Amiella, Wyatt Colt, as of this moment the three of you have been assigned to the First Unit." Everyone went to salute, with Kota being a little slower. "Yes Mam!" they all said at the same time. This is it, thought Wyatt with a mixture of excitement and nervousness as they put their hands down, I'm finally on a unit.

 **At last, Wyatt is part of a Unit, along with some other new faces. And for those who are wondering, yes that was "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin (The song is the property of Disney and not mine), definitely sets a different mood for the fight. Now onto the important part, I'd like to thank all my reviewers, followers and viewers who've kept up with this and all my other stories and offered suggestions and constructive criticism to help make them better. Be sure to come by next time as Wyatt, Alisa, and Kota go out on their first mission together as part of the First Unit.**


	6. It's All About Unit Cohesion

**It's All About Unit Cohesion**

"Starting now," said Major Amamiya as she directed their attention to the stands behind them, "You'll be serving under Unit leader Amamiya." "Hey there," said Lindow as he stood up, "I'm unit leader Lindow Amamiya, but just call me Lindow."

"Yes Sir Mr. Lindow sir," said the boy in the yellow hat in an overly dramatic tone, Kota, Wyatt recalled. "No need to be formal about it," said Lindow as Sakuya stood up next. "Sakuya Tachibana," she said with a slight bow, "Second in command."

"Nice to meet you Sakuya!" said Kota, still overdoing the formal tone of his voice. "Well go ahead and introduce yourself," said Lindow as he turned around to face the stands where the silver-haired guy in the blue coat with the hood sat, Soma, if Wyatt remembered correctly. "I'm Soma," he said in a dismissive tone as he got up and headed straight for the door. "It's a pleasure to meet you Soma!" Kota exclaimed.

"Whatever," said Soma as he walked out of the door. "Study up quick," said Lindow, who was also heading out of the door with Sakuya, "The mission's tomorrow, so enjoy the day off while you got it." As soon as Lindow and the others left the room, Kota let out a huge sigh of relief as his demeanor became completely relaxed.

"Whew," said Kota. "Don't worry," said Wyatt, "The nervousness goes away with time." "I hope so," said Kota as Alisa started walking away without a word. "Hey wait," said Kota, trying to stop her from leaving, "We got the day to ourselves, why don't we head into the town?" Alisa hardly spared him a glance before she continued on her way.

"Ah don't go," said a disheartened Kota. "I'm gonna warn you right now," Wyatt whispered to Kota as they both watched Alisa exit the room, "She's not much of a people person." "How so," asked Kota. "Well instead of giving us a simple heads up about the situation she was in," explained Wyatt, "She thought it better to scoop kick my nuts and knock me upside the head."

"Ouch," said Kota, making a face as he tried to imagine what that must've been like, "Well can you at least come along?" "I mean I should be training," said Wyatt, causing something of a frown to cross Kota's face, "But the last couple of days have whooped my tail, so why not?" Kota's face went from sad to cheerful in an instant as they headed out the door.

Aboard the bus to the Outer Ghetto

"Ah I get it," said Kota, "So she thought you knew about the other passengers onboard but were ordered to ignore them." "Yep," Confirmed Wyatt, "So instead of trying to talk it out with us to see what the situation was, her solution was to try and knock me around a bit to keep me from dragging her off the plane."

"Wow," said Kota, "She sounds kind of harsh." "She is Russian," said Wyatt with an accent to his voice, "A tough hardy people who like to keep to themselves, mostly." "Well what about you?" Questioned Kota, "You're obviously not Japanese, even I can tell that based on your look and accent."

"Nope," Wyatt said as he saluted, "American God Eater Wyatt Colt at your service." Kota laughed at that a little bit as they continued to make conversation on the way to the outer ghetto.

Outer Ghetto: A Few Minutes Later

Kota led Wyatt through the streets of the large shantytown which was the Outer Ghetto, a smile on his face the whole time as he navigated the streets he knew so well. They made a short stop along the way to pick up some food before continuing on. In another few minutes, they arrived at one of the shanty-like houses where Kota happily flung open the door to reveal a woman with the same color hair as his preparing some food in a pot.

"Hey Mom, I'm home!" said Kota happily. "Son," said the woman as she wiped her hands on her apron, "It's terrific to see you home again." "Big brother!" exclaimed a small girl with a face similar to Kota's as she ran from the other side of the room to hug her older brother, "You made it home today!" "Hey there Nozomi," said Kota as he patted his little sister's head, "You haven't been giving Mom a lot of trouble while I was away have you?"

"If anyone gives Mom trouble from time to time it's you big brother," replied Nozomi with an adorable smile on her face. "Oh come on I'm not that bad am I," said Kota as he rubbed the back of his head, a smile spreading across his face. "And whose this guy supposed to be," Asked Nozomi as she pointed at Wyatt, who'd been hanging back in the doorway up to this point.

"Oh this is Wyatt," said Kota as his sister moved to get a closer look at the newcomer, "He was transferred out here all the way from America." "Wow that's super far away!" Exclaimed Nozomi, "What's America like, is it big, are there lots of tall buildings, and why are you wearing goggles anyway?"

"Nozomi, one question at a time," said her mother as she turned to Wyatt, "Please excuse my daughter, she can be quite excitable." "No problem's here," said Wyatt as he kneeled down for a moment, "As for your questions little one, America is a big place with tall buildings, mountains, and forests, all mostly destroyed unfortunatley, and as for the goggles, they keep the twinkle in my eye."

"But no one can see your eyes twinkle if you wear them all the time silly," said Nozomi happily as she tried grabbing for Wyatt's goggles. "Nozomi," said her Mother, "Don't just try yanking them off of his head, it's rude." "She's alright," said Wyatt as he stood up, "But your mother's right, it hurts getting these things yanked off my head."

"Whoops, sorry," said Nozomi innocently. "Nozomi go start getting some of the other ingredients together," said her mother. "Okay," replied Nozomi happily as she sped off to where the house's food was stored. "Oh that reminds me," said Kota as he held out the bag he'd been carrying, "I picked some food up along the way, because as of today me and Wyatt have been officially assigned to a unit!" The sound of a shattering plate silenced everyone in the room as a look of great apprehension crossed the face of Kota's mother.

"So that means they're going to send you out to fight," she said as her features shifted to worry, "I just can't believe you're actually a God Eater." A look of sadness crossed Kota's face for a second before he shifted back to a smile. "Actually Mom I just remembered something," said Kota cheerfully, "Me and Wyatt have got an errand to run, so we won't be able to stay for dinner."

"Kota," said his mother as he turned to leave, "Come back safely." "Aw don't worry Mom, it'll be fine." "Yeah you've got, what, five other people watching your back including me," said Wyatt as he followed Kota out of the house. His comment didn't seem to do much for Kota's mother's mood as they left the house.

"Well that was something," said Wyatt as they came to the top of a large hill overlooking the rest of the outer ghetto where the Aragami had attacked a couple of days ago, "But I do get it, my family definitely wasn't thrilled to hear about my transfer order." Kota didn't answer as they both surveyed the damage. "This is awful," Kota finally said as they watched one of the Fenrir construction crews removing debris, "I hope they can get the Aegis project completed soon."

"You know everyone's been talking about this 'Aegis Project'," said Wyatt, "What is it exactly?" "Wait you don't know what the Aegis Project is about?" Questioned a surprised Kota. "Well I could hardly keep up with all the projects they had going on back at the American Branch," explained Wyatt, "And I only heard them mention that I was being moved out here to assist with one of the Far East Branch's projects, so I haven't really looked into it."

"Well," said Kota as he put his hand to his chin in thought, "The best way to explain it is to show you, follow me."

Kota led Wyatt up and out onto the anti-aragami wall surrounding the Far East Branch. "You see that island out there," said Kota as he pointed to a structure out on the ocean, "That right there is the Aegis Project." "It looks like a giant shelter," said Wyatt as he observed the gigantic dome-like shape.

"Because that's what it is," said Kota, "Fenrir uses the cores we extract from the Aragami as its building materials and when it's finished everyone will be able to live there safely without having to worry about the Aragami."

"You really think it'll hold all of humanity," asked Wyatt, "Not trying to be pessimistic, in fact if anyone believes in miracles it's me, but even today's currently low population might still be too much."

"But that's what's so great about the Aegis Project," said Kota, "It's being specially designed with those kind of factors in mind, so that when it's finished Aegis will be able to house all of humanity." "Well if that's really the case," said Wyatt as he crossed his arms and looked out over the ocean at Aegis, "We'd better do our absolute best as God Eaters."

Abandoned City Area: The Next Day

Wyatt shifted his position as the large, military truck hit another bump in what counted for a road nowadays as they made their way out to mission site. "So that's how you named your weapon?" Questioned Lindow as Wyatt turned back to him to continue his story.

"Yep, two weeks into being a God Eater when I ran into my first Vajra, the squad had split up for the mission that day so it was a difficult fight," explained Wyatt, "I managed to dodge around behind the thing using a grenade, but it recovered quicker than we thought it would and got a good swipe on my teammate."

"And what happened next?" asked Kota, somewhat excitedly. "Well I didn't have a clear shot at its core and my ammo was dry from shooting at it, so I did the one thing that came to mind." "You charged straight at it with your arc in blade form didn't you," said Lindow.

"In a manner of speaking," confirmed Wyatt, "I ran up a nearby pile of rubble, switching my grip on my blade in mid-run, jumped off and stabbed my blade right down into the Vajra's ##." "And that was really the only strategy you could come up with," remarked Soma.

"Oh it gets better," Said Wyatt with a smirk, "The Vajra gets pissed and starts running back and forth around the whole area, trying to buck my sorry screaming #$$ off for I don't know how long, and next thing I know, the rest of my squad shows up and tries shooting the enraged prick."

"While you were still on it," said Kota, "You must've had some team back in America." "Well in their defense they kept yelling at me to let go, while I stupidly responded with 'Are you kidding me there's a meat grinder at the other end'!" Wyatt explained, getting a laugh out of Lindow.

"Finally my blade somehow wrenches out of that thing's electrified anus and tosses me through the air into the only puddle within a mile of the place," Says Wyatt, trying not to laugh.

"Did your team manage to take it out at least," asked Kota. "Fortunately yes," Answered Wyatt, "Then we spent the whole helicopter ride back laughing ourselves half to death, and that's when the squad leader gave my God Arc its new name, Vajra's Bane."

"That's a heck of a story," Sakuya called back from the driver's seat. "It was my first time fighting a Vajra," said Wyatt, "All things considered it could've gone a lot worse." "Speaking of first times," Said Lindow, "This is gonna be your first mission right Kota?" "Uh yes sir," Said Kota, reverting to the same nervous military style speech he used when first talking to Lindow, "But I'm fully trained and ready to go!"

"Alright, well we'll be doing two man teams today," said Lindow, "Alisa, your gun is with me, Wyatt your blade is going with Sakuya, and Kota you're with Soma." "Roger," everyone affirmed.

"Today's target is Gboro Gboro," said Sakuya from the driver's seat as she brought up a picture of the fish-like Aragami, with its most distinguishing feature being its long snout with a hole at the end, rows of large needle-like teeth, and flipper-like feet which it used to slide across the ground. "We'll be hunting for six of them," Sakuya continued, "So that means two for each team, and remember to extract the cores."

"Can do," said Wyatt as he readied Vajra's Bane. "Just remember to make your devours count," said Lindow, "And that goes for everyone else too, now let's hunt us some Aragami."

Mission Area: Abandoned Apartment Complexes

Shot after shot rang out, shattering the stillness and silence which usually enveloped this area as Wyatt and Sakuya fired their weapons at two of the oncoming Gboro Gboro. "Divert the one on our left!" Ordered Sakuya as she continued firing at the other Gboro. "On it," replied Wyatt as he pulled out one of his grenades, a modified frag as opposed to the standard flash grenade, and tossed it at the charging Aragami, blinding it and forcing it to a near stop as Sakuya managed to hit the weak spot on the one she was targeting.

"Now's your chance," said Sakuya, "Devour it!" Wyatt reacted quickly to the command by switching his Arc to sword mode and firing out the large, lion-shaped maw which bit into the Gboro Gboro's body and ripped out its core, finishing off the wounded Aragami as the core was absorbed into Vajra's Bane.

"Now that's the way," said Sakuya as she leapt down from her perch atop one of the ruined buildings, "Let's get after the second one." "Roger that," said Wyatt as he followed after her. As they hurried through the ruined streets between the buildings, a flicker of motion from a large hole in the upper half of one of the buildings caught Wyatt's attention, an ogre tail. Swinging his weapon around, he was about to fire when Sakuya called back.

"Wyatt," Sakuya said, getting his attention, "Just the Gboro Gboro today." "Ah but Moooom!" said Wyatt, unable to help himself, "I wanna kill Ogre Tails toooo!" "No 'buts' young man," Said Sakuya, "You are gonna kill just Gboro and you are going to like it."

"I can't believe you just said that," said Wyatt as he tried not to snicker too much. "I really should scold you for not being more professional," said Sakuya as they started moving down the street again, "But it's been awhile since we've had someone else on the team with a sense of humor." Sakuya caught movement out of the corner of her eye as she turned around to see an escaping Gboro Gboro.

"There's the one we were looking for," said Sakuya as they took off after it. I hope the others are doing okay, thought Wyatt as he strained his ears for any sound which might indicate otherwise. The rapid fire sound of Alisa's arc could be heard close by. Man she is really laying into those things, thought Wyatt as he listened to how short the interval between her shots was.

As they continued pursuing the fleeing Aragami, they made their way up several flights of stairs until they reached the top of one of the apartment complexes. Upon reaching the roof, they noticed Alisa was busy devouring the core of another one of the Aragami, not noticing the entrance of the second one as it landed on the roof behind her. "Alisa heads up," called Sakuya as she fired a shot, wounding the Gboro Gboro.

Alisa turned her head toward the stationary Aragami, her expression completely neutral. "Finish it Alisa," yelled Sakuya. Alisa only looked on for a second longer before she turned her attention back to the other Gboro Gboro. "What is she thinking," said Sakuya as she and Wyatt watched the wounded Aragami regenerate and charge towards the Russian God Eater. "Dad # $# gum it!" exclaimed Wyatt as he jumped down after the Gboro.

But the over-sized fish, as Wyatt sometimes called them, swung back around with surprising speed and fired a large blast of water from its nose at high speed towards him. He barely had any time to react as he activated the shield on Vajra's Bane and held it up, the force of the blast knocking him off his feet and into some nearby rubble. Ouch, thought Wyatt as the Gboro Gboro started advancing on him, this is the kind of ## that causes back problems later in life.

The Aragami charged faster and faster as Wyatt quickly got to his feet, holding his blade ready. Just as he was about to be run over, he sidestepped around the advancing beast and slashed its side, causing it to roar in pain before it snapped at him with its large jaws. Wyatt bobbed and weaved out of the way, trying not to gag on the foul stench of its breath as he swung back with a few strikes of his own, further injuring the Aragami, and further enraging it.

Wyatt jumped back to avoid another one of its swings as the Aragami pointed its nose at him. Not this time, thought Wyatt as he readied himself to jump out of the way. Right as it was about to fire, a flash of blue appeared as Soma came sailing in from above, cleanly cutting through the Aragami in one swing.

"You say you've been at this for six months," said Soma as he turned towards Wyatt with his usual sour expression, "Then you should know by now it only takes one good hit." "Hey we all forget things sometimes," said Wyatt as he suddenly lashed out with his devour attack, which sailed right by Soma and into the regenerating Aragami. Wyatt then proceeded to yank the core out of the now dead Gboro Gboro as it was absorbed into his God Arc.

"Like never turn your back on the enemy unless you've confirmed they're dead," said Wyatt. Soma simply scowled at him as he turned and walked back towards where Kota was. "You'd best do something about that attitude," said Soma, "Guys like you tend to die out here." You should talk, thought Wyatt, and speaking of attitude.

"Why did you ignore the Gboro Gboro," yelled Sakuya, "I asked you to finish it off!" "I'd gotten my quota for this mission," said Alisa, not seeming to really care that Sakuya was angry. "Even if that's the case," Exclaimed Sakuya, "You're supposed to help your teammates, and are you even listening to me?"

"What a day," said Lindow as he, Wyatt and everyone else sat on a different roof top, occasionally glancing at the scolding Alisa was getting down below, "So how many cores did you all manage to get?" "We managed to get two," said Wyatt, "But only because I devoured the core of the Gboro Soma cut up."

"And we got one," said Kota, "Well Soma did anyway." "And I only managed to get one as well," said Lindow with a sigh, "Well we'd best head back."

Ruined Roadway: Sunset

The ride back was far quieter than the ride up had been, with most everyone being in either a foul, depressed, or brooding mood. Wyatt was watching the landscape go by when the truck suddenly slowed, causing everyone to lurch forward slightly as they looked to see what the issue up front was. What in the world, thought Wyatt as he spotted what Lindow and Sakuya were also looking at, civilians, out here?

As Wyatt watched, about a half dozen people who'd clearly been traveling on foot for some time approached the truck. "I can't believe it," said one of the men in worn out traveling clothes as tears started to form in his eyes, "We're saved, we're actually saved." Lindow and Sakuya didn't respond at first as a sad look crossed their faces.

"I thought we were all goners for sure," said one of the civilians, a weary looking man wearing a bandana, "I can't believe we were lucky enough to run into you." "By the looks of it you've been trekking for a while," said Wyatt as he leaned back against the military truck's tailgate, "It's pretty impressive you've all managed to make it this far."

"Yes we've been somewhat fortunate," said the man, "But we lost so many trying to get here." "Well at least things will be a little better for now," said Wyatt as he held out a bottle of water to one of the travelers, a small girl with a pink hoodie, "Here, you look a bit thirsty." The girl seemed hesitant at first until the man in the bandana nodded his head.

"Thank you sir," said the girl in the pink hoodie as she accepted the water. "No need to call me sir," said Wyatt with a small smile, "I'm still considered a kid by most standards." "So are you all God Eaters?" questioned the girl. "Yep," said Wyatt, "Got the big weapon and everything."

"So that means you've defeated some Aragami too?" Asked the girl, excitedly. "A handful here and there," Answered Wyatt as he scratched his chin. "Wow," said the girl, wonder now in her eyes, "You guys are amazing!" "Just trying to do our part," said Wyatt as he looked over his other teammates, noting their neutral and downcast faces.

"Lindow," said Sakuya, making sure no one else in the back could hear her, "Are you sure this is okay?" "Well it wouldn't of been very decent to just leave 'em," said Lindow. "No I know that," said Sakuya sadly, "It's just-." She was unable to finish the rest of the sentence, she didn't want to think about it.

Far East Branch HQ: The Gates

"There's a civilian entrance over there," Sakuya pointed out to the travelers. "Thank you so much," said the man in the bandana, "We're all very grateful for your help." "Good luck to you all," said Sakuya, "We have to go now, so take care." The rest of the travelers thanked them once again as they headed over to the gate for civilians. I hope this gate opens up in a hurry today, thought Wyatt as he watched the massive doors open to admit the truck in.

"What do you mean we can't come in!" yelled one of the civilians. Ah crap, thought Wyatt as he hopped out of the truck, too late. "Do you have any idea what we went through to get here?" I always hated this policy, he thought as he rushed over to the civilian gate.

"Wyatt," Sakuya called after him, "What are you doing?" But he didn't answer as he was trying to hear the rest of what was being said at the civilian gate. "I'm sorry but it's the law," said a Fenrir soldier, "You all failed the compatibility test."

"So test us again," said one of the travelers, "I'm sure at least one of us is a match." "Sir it's time for you all to leave," said the soldier, "If you refuse." The soldier pointed his assault rifle threateningly at the travelers.

"If they refuse then what," asked Wyatt as he landed right next to the soldiers, "You seriously just gonna shoot them?" "Those are my orders, none of them-," "I know why you're turning them away!" Exclaimed Wyatt, cutting off the soldier, "But are you aware that by pulling that trigger you'll be drawing humanity even closer to extinction?"

"We can't just let-," "Anyone in we don't have the room, blah blah blah," said Wyatt, again cutting off the soldier as he stepped even closer to him, "I get it that we're short on room here, but don't just stand there waving your rifles around acting like you can't at least do something for them." "If you keep it up," said the soldier, "That something will be reporting you for insubordination and then- GUUUH!"

Wyatt cut the soldier off this time by knocking his rifle away and grabbing him by the throat, his enhanced strength easily allowing him to yank the soldier forward until he was eye level with him. "Just try it," Said Wyatt in the most menacing tone he could muster, "I'm pretty sure the law doesn't allow you to threaten God Eaters, so quit acting like you're high up on the totem pole!"

"Wyatt!" Lindow called as he walked over, "That's enough." Wyatt let out a sigh as he tossed the soldier aside. "There's nothing you can do for them," Lindow pointed out. "I know," said Wyatt as he turned towards the soldier again, "But he can, so get up and get these folks some supplies for a long journey, and be polite about it this time." The soldier gave no protest this time as he got up and headed off in the direction of the supply warehouses.

"You know that probably wasn't the best approach to the problem," said Lindow as Wyatt began walking his direction. "I know," said Wyatt, all the anger gone from his voice now, "The best way for us to help them is to just keep doing what we're doing, but that doesn't mean I agree with all of Fenrir's policies."

"I don't agree with them all either," said Lindow, "But it's not our decision to make." "Yeah yeah," said Wyatt as he turned back to take one last look at the travelers before they went back to the other side of the gate, "It's just like my Dad once told me, change the things you can and learn to accept the things you can't."

 **Whew, this one was a bit longer I realize, but I wanted to get the story rolling a bit more. Now first off, I'd like to apologize for taking longer than usual to get this chapter out, but work had me pretty occupied this weekend. Now on a more cheery note, This story has exceeded over 200 hundred views and counting, so here's a great big thank you to all my reviewers, followers, and viewers who were patient enough to wait on this story, while also providing me with much needed feed back and encouragement to help make this story better. And if you thought the ending to this chapter was a little darker than usual, well, we're just getting started, so stop in next time as Wyatt and much of the First Unit encounter a new enemy in their fight against the Aragami. 'Til next time.**


	7. Blackness Beneath the Rain

**Blackness Beneath the Rain**

Far East HQ: Wyatt's Quarters

"So I guess the best way to sum up today," said Wyatt as he talked to his family over the terminal, "It just sucked, Kota got stuck with the grumpy guy, our other new member Alisa, you know the Russian girl with such a 'happy' disposition, has absolutely no concept of what the word 'unit' means and oh yeah it turns out they got the same policy of turning away incompatible people over here too."

"Hmm, that is troubling," said his mother, "But remember every job has its bad days, and considering the danger you normally put yourself in I'm happy for every day you're able to come back alive." "Yeah I know," said Wyatt with a sigh, "But I'm never gonna get used to seeing people turned away at the gate."

"But you say they managed to survive outside the wall for some time," His Father said, "And they were sent away with fresh supplies, so there's a good chance they'll get by, at least for a while." "Believe me I made sure they got something," said Wyatt.

"And it's good that you did," said his father, "But don't make a habit out of butting heads with the soldiers, while they are low on the totem pole like you said, it could still come back to bite you."

"Right," Replied Wyatt, "I'll try to keep that in mind." "In the meantime," said his mother, "Did you get the package we sent you?"

"As a matter of fact," said Wyatt as he pulled up an instrument case from the side of his bed, "It was waitin' for me when I got here."

The Next Morning

Oh what a night, thought the pink-haired girl as she straightened out her green jacket, whose length went past her waist and stopped just above her knees, what kind of prick plays a musical instrument in the middle of the night while everyone else is trying to sleep? The girl turned another corner as she continued to dwell on this thought, as well as what sorts of pastries she should bake later that day. He's lucky they wake up so early in the morning, thought the girl as she entered the Den, if I had been more awake I would've given him a piece of my mind.

No sooner had she finished this thought then she caught a glimpse of an unfortunately familiar blue and grey coat wearing God Eater. Oh now this is just perfect, she thought with sudden mischief as she made her way over to Hibari's desk where the object of her soon to be wrath stood.

"So Hibari I got a question," said Wyatt as the female operator typed away at her console, "Do you know where they're at on this 'Aegis' project thing everyone else is working on?" "Well let me check real quick," said Hibari as she inputted a few commands in the terminal, "It appears the project is at 0.06% complete."

"Mother# # seriously!" said a surprised Wyatt, "What are they building this thing out of, gold?" "Well it's made out of the cores of Aragami," explained Hibari, "If we're using only small type Aragami then it'll take tens of thousands of cores."

"What about large types," Asked Wyatt. "Even with large types like Kongou and Vajra, it would still take several thousand, it's an incredibly massive undertaking," Answered Hibari. "Spectacular," said Wyatt with a sigh, "Well I guess that means I'm here for the long haul, hope that's not too disappointing for ya."

"Well someone has to help you with your lame jokes," said Hibari, "So it may as well be, oh hello Kannon, how are you this morning?" Kannon, thought Wyatt as he turned around, before reflexively shrinking away as he covered his face with his arms.

"So it IS you," said the pink-haired girl, who Wyatt assumed was called Kannon based on what Hibari said, "You trying to peep on Hibari next?" "Like I said it was an accident," said Wyatt, "And I've apologized like a hundred times already."

"Wait," said Hibari, "You were the one who barged into her room the other day?" "Like I've tried explaining," Said Wyatt, "I was in a hurry and stopped one room too soon, I thought I was going into my room." "Which is right next to my room," said Kannon, "But that reminds me, what the heck kind of a clarinet were you playing last night."

"It was a saxophone actually," said Wyatt. "Well whatever it was you woke me up in the middle of the night!" Complained Kannon. "It was eight o' clock and I played for a little over ten minutes," Wyatt tried to explain, "I even put the mute in to make sure I wasn't accidently playing too loud."

"Well you failed, miserably," said Kannon with a mischievous smile, "But don't worry, I already got a way you can make it up to me." "Uh," Wyatt tried to think of how to answer to that, "Hey Hibari do I have a mission lined up for today?" "You do but," Hibari checked her terminal, "It's not scheduled for another couple of hours."

"Guess that means you're free," said Kannon as she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and began dragging him off, "Now come on, I need someone to help me with target practice." "Hibari you should probably tell my unit I'm gonna be late," Wyatt called back as Kannon drug him out of the Den.

Now that is certainly odd, thought Hibari, ordinarily Kannon is such a warm/loving person, but then again no guy's ever walked in on her in her underwear either.

Fenrir Training Room

"Kannon!" Yelled Wyatt as he ran out of the way of another blast from the female God Eater's weapon, "I doubt there are any Aragami out there that present as small a target as me!" "You never know," Kannon yelled back as she fired off another round, "Everyone says Aragami are evolving all the time!"

"Well they haven't reached people just yet," Wyatt answered as he dove behind some rubble which the training simulator had generated, "And besides, wouldn't it be better to have something fake to shoot at?" "Already got that covered," said Kannon as some images suddenly flickered to life near Wyatt.

"Oh come on I don't even have my weapon for the simulator," said Wyatt as a group of ogre tails, a couple of kongou, and some zygotes materialized thanks to the advanced systems of the training room's hologram generator. "Well I also need to practice saving civilians," said Kannon, "So guess what you get to be!"

"A victim of cruel and unusual punishment!" exclaimed Wyatt as he took off running across the training room again. "I was gonna say civilian, but tomato tom-a-toe," said Kannon with a mischievous grin as she bombarded the area where the fake Aragami, and Wyatt, were at. I heard all the rumors but I thought they were exaggerating, thought Wyatt as he zigzagged around the area to avoid the barrage, she really is merciless when she starts firing her weapon.

Wyatt dodged, rolled, and ran around the simulator for what could've been another hour to him before the shooting abruptly stopped. "Are uh, we done," called Wyatt as he poked his head around some more digitized rubble. Near the entrance, Kannon was talking to a surprising newcomer, Alisa. "Wyatt," Alisa called, "We have a mission, you'll have time for flirting later."

"Oh that is so not what was happening here," said Wyatt. "Not in the slightest," Said Kannon, "Wyatt was just helping me with target practice." "'Helping' may be a bit of a strong word," said Wyatt as he approached the two female God Eaters, "Let's just say I got roped into it."

"I don't really care what you call it," said Alisa, "You're wasting time so we'd best get going." "Now that's a little rude-," Kannon said before Wyatt stepped in.

"She is right though," He said quickly as he started pushing Alisa towards the doorway, "we got a mission so we 'really' need to get going, hope you have a good rest of the day!"

"Will you please stop touching me!" Said Alisa in her usual no-nonsense tone. "Yeah sorry about that," said Wyatt as he stopped pushing her forward and began walking beside her towards the command center, "But I really owe you one for showing up when you did, even if it was a simulator I'm almost certain those blasts would've hurt."

"Not that I care," said Alisa, "But why were you training without a weapon to begin with?" "Oh Kannon was just getting back at me for a little incident or two," replied Wyatt. "What kind of incident prompts a girl to make one of her fellow God Eaters target practice?" Asked Alisa.

"Waking her up on accident with a saxophone or accidently walking in on her while she's only in her underwear would probably do it," said Wyatt, laughing nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. Alisa walked silently for a moment before speaking, "Truly unbelievable." Wyatt continued to laugh nervously for another moment as they fell into a somewhat awkward silence the rest of the way to the command center.

Far East Command Center:

"Do you think your team could handle two large types," asked Major Amamiya as Sakuya scrutinized the data pad she'd been given. "We have the numbers," said Sakuya, "But Lindow and Soma are both out on assignments for the director." Sakuya punched in a few commands on the data pad and showed it to Tsubaki. "Will this do?" she asked.

"Six Gboro Gboro," read Major Amamiya, "That's also fine, you're the second in command so it falls to you to decide." "Thank you Major," said Sakuya as Tsubaki exited the room.

"Umm Miss Sakuya," said Kota hesitantly. "Yes Kota," replied Sakuya. "I think we should go after the large types," Kota said finally. "Where's this coming from all of a sudden?" asked Sakuya. "W-well," answered Kota with a bit of a stutter, "If we get cores from larger Aragami, we'll have more material and the Aegis project can be finished faster."

"He's a got a point," said Wyatt, backing up Kota's argument, "And you said we have the personnel so I don't see why we can't give it a shot." "You too Wyatt," said Sakuya with a sigh, "I should warn you if we go after the large types, we'll be going after these."

Sakuya flipped the data pad around for everyone to see the targeted Aragami, Vajra. "You and I both know how dangerous Vajra are Wyatt," said Sakuya. "I also think we should go for the Vajra," said Alisa suddenly. "Alisa," said a surprised Sakuya, "Why the sudden interest?"

"I'm simply executing my duty as a new type," said Alisa as she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes. After another moment, Sakuya sighed in resignation. "Alright fine," said Sakuya, "But if I decide it's too risky then we withdraw immediately, and I'll expect you to follow my orders are we clear!" "Yes mam!" They all answered with a salute.

Vajra Territory: Some Time Later

It was raining in torrents as Wyatt and Alisa maneuvered around a charging Vajra. Alisa and everyone else had donned a type of green poncho for the weather, while Wyatt was wearing a hooded jacket version of his own coat. "Don't take it head on," said Sakuya over their earpieces, "Hit it from behind."

Sure thing, thought Wyatt as he and Alisa slipped around and slashed the Vajra's back legs, causing it to tumble over. That's one partially down, thought Wyatt as he was about to switch to gun mode. But the second Vajra attempted to pounce on both him and Alisa, forcing them to quickly jump away from the wounded Vajra. I really hope you got a shot on that wounded one Kota, thought Wyatt, Sakuya's gotta keep us covered from this one.

The second Vajra swiped at Wyatt and Alisa again, but this time Wyatt was able to shift his arc to gun form and started firing at it. The Vajra recoiled as even more shots from Sakuya impacted against it. Then, taking her opening, Alisa charged forward and slashed the Vajra's side. Overwhelmed, the large Aragami turned and retreated at the same time as a shot rang out, finishing off the wounded Vajra.

Alright, thought Wyatt, I knew you had it in ya Kota. "Wyatt," said Sakuya over his earpiece, "Devour the core of the wounded Vajra." "Can do," said Wyatt as he spared a glance at Alisa, who was currently chasing down the other retreating Vajra. Better do this quick, he thought.

Sakuya, Kota, and Wyatt quickly made their way down the large, rocky hill towards what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse of sorts. As they approached, an unexpected sound greeted their ears, the sound of screaming civilians. What in the world, thought Wyatt as a group of civilians came running out of one side of the warehouse, followed by an angry Vajra.

"What are people doing in a Vajra's nest," questioned Sakuya aloud as Alisa came crashing through the window on the other side of the warehouse, shortly followed by a collapsing wall as a second Vajra tore through it. Then, as if the situation wasn't already bad enough, a third Vajra came roaming over the hillside, effectively cutting off any escape route for the four God Eaters and the civilians.

"Stay together," said Sakuya as the three Vajra closed in on their would be prey. "What can we do?" Asked Kota. "Besides trying not to # & ourselves," Wyatt blurted out, "Crap, I said that out loud didn't I."

"We'll need to take one out," said Sakuya, the calm in her voice hiding her own nervousness, "It's our only chance." Just as the first Vajra was about to charge, a massive black shape seemed to leap out of nowhere as it slammed into the Vajra closest to Alisa, quickly tearing through the smaller Aragami.

"What the ## ," Wyatt couldn't help saying aloud as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing, an Aragami eating another Aragami. In the next few moments the rogue monster leaped to its next target, quickly ripping out a part of its head as it landed on the third Vajra, crushing its head with is massive paw.

"A black Vajra," said Kota as everyone could finally get a good look at the Aragami. It was larger than any Vajra they'd ever seen, with long white hair on its face which looked like a beard, what appeared to be curved blades sticking out of its body in certain areas, red pulsing veins along its legs, a pair of wing-like protrusions sticking out of its back and blood red eyes.

"Why is it eating them," asked Kota as the black Vajra started devouring one of the smaller Vajra. "It's some kind of mutant Vajra," answered Sakuya as she continued to stare in disbelief, "I've never seen anything like it."

"At last," Alisa suddenly said as she stepped forward, "I've finally found you, Dyaus Pita." She suddenly grabbed her head as pain shot through it, before she reached into a pouch at her hip and ingested a number of pills, crunching down on them before charging head long towards the monstrous black Vajra.

"Alisa!" Sakuya tried calling to her, but she wasn't listening as she continued to rush forward, her intentions clear in her eyes. "Wyatt get her back here," said Sakuya, "Kota, back him up, I'll watch over the civilians."

"Roger," said Wyatt and Kota as they ran after their teammate. Alisa was already too far ahead of them, though, as she leapt off the ground, swinging her blade at the Black Vajra's head. But Pita didn't hardly look up as it swung its tail around and swatted Alisa out of the air, knocking her blade aside as she landed on the ground, hard.

"Kota cover me," said Wyatt as he switched Vajra's Bane to gun form and fired a few shots to get the Aragami's attention. But Pita moved with incredible speed for a monster of its size as it ducked and dodged around Wyatt's shots. As he switched back to blade form, Kota fired his own weapon at the now advancing Aragami.

The result was the same, however, as Pita bobbed and weaved its large frame around Kota's line of fire and quickly closed the distance between it and Wyatt. Here it comes, thought Wyatt as he swung his blade at the advancing Aragami. Pita wasn't as simple as the other Vajra, however, as it jumped to the side and quickly moved its head out of the way of Wyatt's first few swings before it twisted around and swung a paw at him.

Wyatt only managed to bring his blade up before the enormous paw knocked him several feet away into a small boulder protruding out of the ground. ## , it's heading for the civilians, thought Wyatt as Pita resumed its charge, hardly slowed by Kota's gun fire. Sakuya's distracted trying to get the civilians away, Wyatt realized as he pushed himself back up to his feet.

"Sakuya!" Kota yelled too late as Dyaus Pita slammed the ground right in front of them, causing a massive electrical blast which flung Sakuya and Kota into the air, enveloped in electrical energy. This is bad, thought Wyatt as he began rushing over, willing his legs to move as fast as they possibly could.

But it was all in vain as a number of civilians were cut to ribbons by a single swipe from Dyaus Pita. No! Wyatt screamed in his head as his communicator suddenly crackled to life.

"W-wyatt," said Sakuya weakly, drawing his attention to his two teammates who had been paralyzed by the Black Vajra's lightning attack, "P-please try t-to protect e-everyone." "I'm on it," replied Wyatt, his usual joking tone in his voice gone as he rushed towards the fleeing civilians. As he was about to reach the civilians, and Dyaus Pita, several shots came flying from the distance.

Looking in the direction of the shots, Wyatt saw that Alisa had recovered and was firing her Gatling gun at Pita, causing it to stop as it turned towards her. "Alisa we need to take this thing together!" Shouted Wyatt as he placed himself in between Pita and the remaining civilians.

But Alisa either didn't hear him or didn't care as Pita turned its attention on her and sprang up the hill. I can't let her take that thing alone, thought Wyatt, but I can't leave the civilians either so what should I do?

Glancing behind him, Wyatt noted the terrified expressions of the people. Gosh I hate this # # right now, he thought as he turned around and directed the civilians to keep moving, if I can get everyone to safety quickly enough then I can go help, so please just hold on for a little bit Alisa. As they ran, Wyatt kept his ears strained for the sound of Alisa's God Arc, anything to keep the focus off of his own pounding heart.

Taking a moment to glance back, he noticed something was off, he no longer heard the sound of gunfire. Crap no, Wyatt thought as he whirled around to see a dark shape approaching fast. Dyaus Pita was back on their trail.

The large Aragami leaped off of the hillside, landing on the opposite side of Wyatt and the other civilians. "No you don't," he exclaimed as he jumped over the small crowd of civilians, and kicked off of the hillside, putting him in the Aragami's blind spot, or so he thought. Just as he was about to strike, the wing-like protrusions on Pita's back suddenly sprung open, as if it was spreading its wings and slashed at Wyatt with several bladed wing tips.

"Aaah," Wyatt nearly shouted through clenched teeth as one of the blades slashed across the side of his God Arc and cut a large gash in his left shoulder as he was flung backwards. Despite feeling a good bit of pain as he hit the ground, he still managed to switch his weapon to gun form and fired a few times, forcing his red-eyed enemy back a little ways, giving him some breathing room to get back to his feet. # #, thought Wyatt as he quickly examined his weapon, that monster sheared off a part of my shield and damaged the mechanism, I can't use it effectively now.

He hardly had time to finish the thought as Pita managed to maneuver around his shots and pounce on him with its wing blades extended. Quickly switching to blade form, Wyatt managed to parry a few strikes from the wing blades, with his final one blocking a vertical strike which would've cut him down the middle. The Aragami pushed its blades down as Wyatt tried to hold it at bay, his body straining against Pita's strength.

I can't win by overpowering this thing, Wyatt realized, I need to move away from it and get a better angle. But he never got the chance as Pita knocked him to the ground with its paw. Wyatt tried to rise, but was immediately pinned to the ground by Pita's foot as one of its claws plunged into his chest.

Wyatt cried out in pain as some blood came running out of his mouth. Pita seemed to smile at his predicament as it brought a pair of its wing blades down on him. Moving as fast as he could, Wyatt managed to swing his weapon up and brace it with both hands as Pita's wing clashed against the blade. The Aragami continued smiling as it used its other wing and paw to slash through the remaining civilians, most of whom were too terrified to move.

No, no, no, Wyatt screamed in his own head as he tried pushing back against Pita, noticing that some cracks had started to form in his blade. Electricity began to crackle around the wing blades as Pita fried the corpses it had impaled on its other wing before eating them. A large amount of blood spilled onto him, drenching him in the stench of death. I won't let this end like a nightmare, thought Wyatt as more cracks formed in his blade.

Shots rang out suddenly, glancing off of the wing blades and drawing Pita's attention away from Wyatt. She's alive, he realized as he looked over to see Alisa propping herself up against a boulder. More shots rang out from a different direction, forcing Pita to remove its claw from Wyatt's chest and move away. Sakuya, Kota, he thought as he struggled to his feet and saw his fellow God Eaters firing at Pita.

"Wyatt, Alisa get out of there!" Sakuya yelled over his radio. "I gotta get Alisa first," he replied over the line, somewhat weakly. "We'll cover you now go!" Sakuya said as she and Kota moved away from a lighting ball attack Pita shot their way.

Moving as quickly as he could, Wyatt stumbled over to where Alisa was. Just as I thought, he noted as he reached Alisa, she was barely conscious when she was shooting at that thing and now she's out completely. Wasting no time, Wyatt slipped her arm over his shoulder, thankful that she still had a death grip on her arc as he drug her and his own weapon away from the battlefield, or so he thought.

Once again displaying its odd intelligence, Dyaus Pita changed directions and charged straight at the wounded God Eaters. I can't outrun that thing, Wyatt concluded as more blood poured from his wound. Turning around, Wyatt tried transforming Vajra's Bane to gun form, but the mechanism wasn't functioning. The damage is worse than I thought, only got one shot now.

As the Black Vajra bared down on the two of them, Wyatt used the devour attack from his arc, sending out a lion's maw at the beast. But once again, Pita was too fast as it leapt and spun, tearing through the neck of his devour as what was left of it retreated back into his arc.

Staring in disbelief for a few moments as Pita leaped over them, Wyatt did the only thing he could at that moment. "Alisa, try to hold on," was Wyatt's final words as he held his teammate close to him.

The Aragami landed behind them, its massive size breaking the cliff beneath them. In the next moment, they were falling through the air towards a large river below, with Wyatt's goggles slipping off of his head as they hit the water.

 **From good to bad in such a short time, and Wyatt thought the day before was bad. Well, as I said, it's God Eater and some of it is gonna get dark. But don't worry, I've got a couple of lighthearted ideas for next chapter to keep it from getting too depressing or anything. Now, on to the real reason for this author note, a big thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've given me feed back on the good and bad aspects of this story, it really helps make it that much better. So be sure to stop in next time as Alisa and Wyatt put their survival skills to the test. 'Til next time.**


	8. Survival in a Predatory World

**Survival in a Predatory World**

"HQ this is Sakuya," she said between ragged breaths as she loaded Kota onto the transport truck they had used to get out to the Vajra's area, "We've lost Wyatt and Alisa, can you get a fix on their location?" "We've got the trackers on their bracelets but no available units at the moment," answered Hibari, "I'm afraid they're on their own for the moment."

Unknown River Bank

A flash of black, an image of a red-eyed Vajra, the sight of his God Arc cracking, the spray of blood from the people he was supposed to protect, the last sights of his old teammates in America before-. Wyatt jolted awake at the sight of the images in his head, quickly rising to his hands and knees, coughing up blood and water as he gasped for air for several seconds. Oh I hope someone got the number on that monster truck with spiked wheels, thought Wyatt as he examined the wound in his stomach.

First things first, he thought as he removed an injector of bias factor from his jacket, wound treatment. Wyatt placed the injector against one of the veins in his neck and shot the bias factor into his vein. "I can't wait for the day they get this stuff in pill form," said Wyatt, thinking out loud as he returned the injector to his jacket and took in his surroundings.

He was on the bank of a river surrounded by several small cliffs, many of which were, fortunately, easy to climb and in the distance were several abandoned buildings which looked like apartment complexes. As he turned around to look behind him, he spotted two things that gave him hope and dread. One was the sight of Vajra's Bane laying nearby, the other, however, was the sight of his teammate, Alisa, lying unconscious, and likely quite injured, on a nearby rock in the river.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Wyatt pushed himself up off the ground and made his way over to Alisa, doing his best not to slip in the many puddles created by the rain. Alisa made no response as Wyatt carried her to the shore and laid her on the ground as he checked her pulse. "Oh we are not doing this," said Wyatt, noting her practically nonexistent heartbeat as he began CPR, "I don't know you well, but I know you're way too tough to die from a little water in your lungs!"

Wyatt counted his compressions until he reached the required number, hesitating slightly as he was about to attempt the next part. I'm so glad Kannon's not here right now, thought Wyatt as he inched closer to Alisa, their faces now barely an inch apart, she'd kill me if she saw this right now.

Just as Wyatt was about to give her mouth to mouth, Alisa suddenly coughed, hacking up the water in her lungs out of her mouth, and into Wyatt's face. "Ah," said Wyatt as he recoiled and wiped his face, "Really, it had to be right then!" Alisa coughed for another few seconds before she resumed breathing normally, though she remained unconscious.

Well all that matters is she's still alive, thought Wyatt as he noticed his goggles were gone. Crap, he thought as he searched the pockets in his coat for the spare pair of goggles, coming up empty. They must've fallen out in the river, he surmised as he caught the movement of an ogre tail nearby. Gotta find shelter, he thought as his eyes fell upon one of the abandoned buildings. That'll have to do, he decided as he scooped up Alisa and drug his damaged God Arc towards safety.

Abandoned Apartment Building:

Definitely not glamorous, Wyatt mused as he attempted to wrap some bandages around the wound in his stomach, but at least we're out of the dad gum rain. Despite what he'd learned about prioritizing first aid in the field, Wyatt had seen to Alisa's wounds first, injecting her with the rest of his bias factoer, bandaging her head and as a precaution, some of her ribs just in case one of them had been broken in the fight with the Black Vajra. What had him most worried, however, was his weapon, Vajra's Bane.

The God Arc's blade had a few chunks taken out of it, and none of its mechanisms, shield or transformation, were working at the moment. Licca is gonna kill me, he thought, and that's before I have to report back to the American HQ about it, not looking forward to that. "PITA!" Alisa suddenly yelled as she sprang up from the bed she was laying on. "Ah," said Wyatt as he dropped the bandage out of surprise, remembering at the last second not to look towards Alisa.

"Good you're awake," said Wyatt, his back still towards his comrade, "I was starting to worry." "Wyatt," said Alisa, clearly confused, "How'd we get here?" "Well," said Wyatt, "After our royal ## whooping, a cliff collapsed underneath us and we got washed down the river, no idea how far, but I dragged us here after I woke up."

"And what about Pita, where is it?" Asked Alisa, an unfamiliar desperation in her voice. "If you're talking about that Black Vajra, what'd you call it 'Diet Peta'-," "Dyaus Pita!" Alisa corrected Wyatt. "Right that ## #," said Wyatt, "Couldn't say, it hopped away to who knows where right before I lost consciousness."

"Next time," seethed Alisa, talking more to herself than to Wyatt, "Next time I won't miss." Wyatt was about to question her about her beef with the Pita until he heard her breathing quicken and a rustling as she pulled what sounded like the little medicine box she carried with her out.

"My God Arc," Alisa said suddenly, her voice a little more even now, "Do you have it?" "Sorry but I haven't had the chance to look," Said Wyatt as he picked up the bandages he'd been working with before and tried wrapping his wound again, "But if you help me get this hole in my stomach wrapped I may be able to help."

Alisa hesitated for a moment before answering. "Fine," said Alisa as she stood up and moved towards Wyatt, "But try not to slow me down out there." "You drive a hard bargain," said Wyatt, "But I'll see what I can do." "Well then turn around and let me see the wound," said Alisa.

"You can wrap it fine from behind me," said Wyatt, "Let me worry about keeping the bandages in line." "I need to know how bad it is," said Alisa, getting a little impatient, "And it'll be easier if you use both hands to hold your shirt up while I wrap the wound, so turn around."

"Three hands are better than two," said Wyatt, "I've already got the wound partially wrapped anyway." "Will you just turn around!" Said Alisa as she grabs his shoulder and yanks him around to look him in the eye. "Ah!" Alisa recoils and stumbles back onto the floor, "Your eyes, why do your eyes look like an Aragami's?"

"Yeah that's one of the usual reactions," says Wyatt as he finally turns around and faces Alisa, "And before you ask, no I'm not an Aragami in human form, my eyes only became this way after I became a God Eater."

"But how?" Questions Alisa, still a little unnerved, "I've never seen that happen to anybody who became a God Eater." "It's a bit of a story," answers Wyatt, "So tell you what, I'll tell you the story if you patch me up."

Alisa looks unsure for a few moments before finally nodding her head and pulling out a vial of bias factor, "Fine, but you'd best tell me everything, I've had enough surprises today." "Fair enough," Wyatt says with a nod as Alisa injects him with the bias factor through his arm.

"So I've never gotten to tell you about my family," said Wyatt, "When this whole Aragami thing started they did the smart thing and got as many supplies together as they could and got behind one of the defensive walls, so I was born and raised in the American version of a Fenrir ghetto." "What does that have to do with your eyes," asked Alisa as she began bandaging his wound.

"I'm getting there," said Wyatt as he continued with the story, "Now, because I had my family I wanted to look after I originally had no plans to become a God Eater." "What changed," asked Alisa. "One day I noticed my eyes were starting to fail," answered Wyatt, "The doctors said it was a form of glaucoma setting in early, and while they may have been able to treat it in the early stages, well, let's just say a regular kid in the outer sections of the wall wasn't as high priority as say, a God Eater or a Fenrir soldier."

"So you decided to become a God Eater because you were going blind," asked a confused Alisa. "The world's extra harsh these days," said Wyatt, "And while my family would still have cared for me, even if I was blind, I knew I'd be a liability for their survival should they ever get in the wall, so I applied to become a God Eater and got lucky enough to be compatible with the first new type God Arc."

"They let you in, even though you were going blind?" questioned Alisa. "It would've taken at least another two years for me to go totally blind," explained Wyatt, "More than enough time for them to find another new type and collect data on my performance, but to be honest the only thing I cared about was that when my death arrived I'd be able to see it coming."

"Then something else happened didn't it," said Alisa. "The moment they clapped this oracle bracelet onto my wrist and flooded my body with oracle cells," said Wyatt as he held up the device, "My eyes healed, better than before, I can see in the dark now, view objects from much farther away than I ever could before, and even view some things in greater detail."

"But they look like the eyes of a Vajra," said Alisa. "I never said there weren't downsides," said Wyatt, "These babies are actually vulnerable to extra bright light, hence why I don't use flashbangs like everyone else, and I wear the goggles to help minimize the risk of getting blinded by my teammates, believe me it sucked the first time that happened." "But you also wear them in the base," Alisa pointed out.

"Some people are a little unnerved by the sight of them," Wyatt explained, his calm demeanor unchanged, "Understandable considering these eyes are usually found on humanity's enemies." "And yet you still try to keep a sense of humor," remarked Alisa.

"It's hard to explain to some people," said Wyatt, "You see I fully expected to die shortly after I became a God Eater, my only hope at the time being that I could do something useful before then, but once my eyes healed, I realized that even in a world like this miracles can happen, it's hard to stay in a bad mood after something like that."

"Well for the record I still think you're kind of weird," said Alisa. "Why Miss Amiella," said Wyatt with a smirk, "Is that a joke I here-OW." Alisa had tightened the bandages around Wyatt's torso a bit more than necessary. "I also think you should get some rest," she said as she finished wrapping the bandages, "You can't very well help me find my weapon if you're wound isn't closed up." "Fair point," groaned Wyatt as he moved to the other bed and shut his eyes.

Just when I thought he couldn't get more odd, thought Alisa as her eyes fell upon Vajra's Bane. As if the situation wasn't already bad, she mused as she poked Wyatt's God Arc, noting that it didn't react at all to her unfamiliar presence. And it's dead, she concluded as she sat against the wall and held her legs to her chest.

Ordinarily I'd just leave him here for a bit, she thought, it'd be more efficient for me to find my weapon now instead of waiting here. As she tried to think of what to do, she felt her forehead and stomach where Wyatt had bandaged her injuries before checking out the window, noting a Vajra a short distance away. But it seems we won't be going anywhere for a bit.

As time went on, Alisa's single pill began to wear off as her mind drifted to her parents, the last time she ever saw them, and the guilt which accompanied the memory. One little game of hide and seek, she thought, if it hadn't been for her one little game they wouldn't have been out in the open, and Pita wouldn't have gotten them. Her body tensed as she seemed to relive the day again, watching her parents getting killed from her little hiding place in an old wardrobe, and Pita's horrible red eye which seemed to fill the crack in the wardrobe.

Alisa looked towards the door of the abandoned apartment and realized she wasn't imagining an Aragami eye. In another moment, an ogre tail burst into the room with its trademark snarl as Alisa simply screamed at the advancing Aragami. Mommy, Daddy help me! She screamed in her head as the Aragami charged at her.

I'm awake! Thought Wyatt as he jolted upright at the sound of a splintering door. The sound of a girl screaming told him the rest of what was happening as his eyes fell upon an ogre tail which was about to charge Alisa. "The heck you will!," Wyatt shouted as he jumped off of the bed and slammed his shoulder into the Aragami, knocking it into the wall.

Taking the opening, Wyatt grabbed his arc and hit the ogre tail across the face, only seeming to stun if for a moment as it turned back towards him with a growl. "Oh ## ," said Wyatt as the ogre tail sprang at him with open jaws. Wyatt managed to catch it's teeth on his blade as he tried to hold it off. "W-wyatt," said Alisa, her voice full of fear, "The window!"

Wyatt risked a glance behind him as he continued to hold the ogre tail back. "Go, I'll be right behind you," said Wyatt. Alisa hesitated for a moment before she moved to the window. The sound of shattering glass let Wyatt know that she'd jumped out as he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his specialized frag grenades.

"Enjoy the snack," Wyatt couldn't help quipping as he pulled the pin with his teeth and tossed it into the ogre tails mouth. Quickly freeing his arc, Wyatt leaped out of the shattered window as a small explosion blew out what remained of the glass behind him.

Abandoned Store:

Well what a day this has been so far, thought Wyatt as he examined Vajra's Bane. He and Alisa had managed to shake the ogre tail which had been after them by ducking into what used to be some kind of convenience store, if Wyatt's historical knowledge was correct. But they couldn't stay long, they were already hearing the sound of more Aragami wandering around outside the building. "How's your wound," asked Alisa suddenly.

"It's clotted and healing pretty well now," said Wyatt, "Thanks again for the patch job." "I'm sorry about the way I reacted to your eyes," said Alisa, hanging her head a little lower, "I always thought you insisted on wearing those goggles because you thought they made you look cool."

"Did they not," questioned Wyatt, trying to lighten the mood, "Anyway do you think they can fix Vajra's Bane here?" "I couldn't say," replied Alisa, "I've never seen one with that extent of damage, but from what I can tell, it's pretty much dead." "How do ya figure that," asked Wyatt.

"When I touched it earlier there was no reaction," said Alisa, "As you likely know, most arcs react violently when someone besides their wielder touches them, and it had no effect on the ogre tail from earlier, meaning right now your arc is little more than a giant hunk of metal."

Wyatt looked at his weapon as he took a moment to absorb all of the information. Vajra's Bane, the weapon which had taken him seemingly so far in such a short time was dead, possibly unable to be wielded ever again. Somehow, Wyatt didn't want to accept that. "If only I had my God Arc with me," said Alisa with a hint of anger in her voice, "Do you think there's any chance we could find it along the river?"

"It's the best idea I've heard so far," said Wyatt as the sound of harmonica music suddenly started playing from his pocket, "Oh how 'bout that." "What is that," asked Alisa as Wyatt removed the music player from his pocket, "My music still plays on this thing, I thought the water had trashed it." "Well turn it off before it leads the Aragami right to us," said Alisa, her usual attitude returning.

"Working on it," said Wyatt as he tried switching the player off, then lowering the volume, "Uh this ain't good." No matter what he did, not only was the music player not turning off, the volume was getting louder. "Why won't it turn off!" Alisa whispered fiercely.

"I guess the water messed it up after all," said Wyatt as a number of Aragami suddenly stopped by the window, their eyes all peering in at the source of the sudden music. "Well crap," said Wyatt. "KAME KAME KAME KAME KAME CHAMELEON! It comes and goes, it comes and goes!" sang the music player.

"I cannot believe I'm gonna die with weird background music!" exclaimed Alisa as they ran out of the building with Wyatt's music player still on as several ogre tails came busting through the wall behind them, "What song is this anyway?" "It's a Japanese parody of an old song from a British band!" Wyatt yelled back as they ran up the river in search of Alisa's God Arc.

Abandoned Warehouse By the River: Some Time Later

"It's just so sad," said Wyatt as he looked at the crushed screen on his music player. They had been chased a good ways down the river by the Aragami as Wyatt had tried to shut off the player without breaking it. Eventually, Alisa did what he couldn't and took the player from him, crushing the screen and finally silencing the surprisingly resilient electronic device.

"That piece of der'mo nearly got us killed," said Alisa, slipping a word of her native Russian in as she sat shivering in front of Wyatt. "It was a gift from my family," said Wyatt as he slipped what remained of it back into his pocket. After another moment of awkward silence, Wyatt pulled off his jacket and presented it to Alisa.

"I know this may go against your pride as a native Russian," said Wyatt, "But it's okay to admit that you're cold." "Isn't that jacket another gift from your family," asked Alisa. "Actually no," corrected Wyatt, "This one was recommended to me by Hibari for the rain, and my usual coat I picked out myself."

"But won't you get cold?" Alisa questioned, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. "My Mom kept bugging me about being prepared," said Wyatt as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small, green, fold up poncho, "Made me bring a rain poncho along just in case." Alisa hesitated for another moment before finally accepting Wyatt's jacket.

"Just to be clear," said Alisa, "I am not accepting this because I am cold, I'm just tired of being rained on." "Of course," said Wyatt with a slight smirk, "If you were cold we'd have to share body heat because we're both sopping wet right now." "Every time I start to think you're competent you go and ruin it by saying something stupid," said Alisa with a sigh.

"Just something I heard, might've been wrong," said Wyatt as he pulled out a survival knife from the sheath on the back of his belt and looked at the compass built into the top of the handle. "Well for your information, since we're wet we'd actually have to remove our-oh!" Alisa covered her mouth, realizing what she'd nearly let slip. "I'm listening," said Wyatt, feigning innocence as he flicked the handle, correcting the compass. "Nothing," said Alisa, turning slightly red as she suddenly stood up, "Now let's get going."

Alongside the Riverbank:

Will this rain ever stop, thought Wyatt as they made their way down towards the river. Alisa was just ahead of him, picking her way carefully along the rocks until something seemed to catch her eye. Without an explanation, Alisa suddenly broke into a run, splashing into the shallow section of the river where a boulder was situated in the middle. "Hey wait up," said Wyatt as he quickened his pace down the slope.

"I found it," Alisa yelled, "It's right here." "That's great," Wyatt called back, realizing that she'd found her God Arc. A sudden growl caught Wyatt's attention. "Alisa get out of there!" Wyatt yelled, just in time as Alisa jumped out of the way of an ogre tail's snapping jaws. Alisa spun around to face the Aragami with her weapon in hand, some of the determination back in her eyes.

Finally we can stop running around, thought Wyatt as Alisa blocked the ogre tails charge with her shield. More snarling sounded as another group of seven or eight more ogre tails emerged from the other side of the river. Something's wrong, Wyatt realized as he watched Alisa's movements as she swung at the circling ogre tails. She's swinging her weapon around like a kid with a stick, no skill whatsoever.

As one of the ogre tails was about to charge at her unprotected back, Wyatt charged in and knocked it away with his broken blade. "Alisa what's wrong," asked Wyatt as he ducked one of her uncoordinated swings. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Alisa said, not seeming to notice Wyatt, "Mommy, Daddy!" Of all the times for her to revert to homicidal childhood, thought Wyatt as he knocked another ogre tail away before having to dodge around Alisa again.

The minutes ticked by as Wyatt did his best to hold the attacking Aragami at bay, while Alisa's reckless swings only managed to kill one or two of them, as she simply grazed or scratched the rest of them. At one point, Wyatt nearly lost his head as one of the ogre tails lunged at him, snatching his poncho and tearing it off. I'm slowing down, Wyatt realized, my wound ain't quite healed yet.

To make matters worse, Alisa had tossed her weapon to the ground, holding her head in her hands as the pounding in her skull became too much to bear. Wyatt looked around desperately for an escape route as he and Alisa were backed up against the boulder in the river. We're surrounded, he realized as the ogre tails slowly closed in, they're large teeth dripping with what passed for saliva in an Aragami. This was always a possibility, thought Wyatt, living is a luxury when it comes to this job.

A glance behind him, however, told him he still had one more thing to do. "I don't know if you can hear me right now Alisa," said Wyatt, again noting her broken state, "But I'm gonna try to make an opening, the moment you see it, run." He didn't know if she understood, but it didn't matter, this was all he could do now.

"Alright!" Wyatt yelled a challenge at the approaching beasts, his eyes taking on a rare predatory look, "I'm a busy guy, so if we're gonna do this let's ## # do it already!" The ogre tails seemed to take that as a signal as they all charged. Just as they were about to overtake him, a green cylinder came flying into view. Oh not again, thought Wyatt as he tried to shield his eyes.

But he wasn't quite fast enough as some of the light from the flash grenade managed to hit his eyes, causing his vision to blur greatly. All he could do then was listen as the sound of blade against flesh was heard in front of him. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, the sounds of the ogre tails was gone as Wyatts' vision slowly came back to him.

"Damn it all," Wyatt heard Lindow's distinctive voice as he blinked the remaining dots out of his eyes, "I came all the way out here for a rescue mission and this is what I find?" "Considering the ## # we've been through," said Wyatt, "We're lucky you found us at all."

"Still not an excuse for forgetting your first orders newbie," said Lindow, "You can't protect much of anyone if you die." "What should I have done?" questioned Wyatt, nowhere near being in the mood for a lecture, "I tried my best to follow your orders up to this point, but I signed up for this job knowing full well that I might not see the next day!"

"Then tell me what was your reason then," asked Lindow, "For becoming a God Eater." "Before this," said Wyatt, pointing to his eyes, "and before I remembered I had something to protect, I'd say I signed up to die."

 **And that brings us to the end of this chapter, anyone care to count how many near death moments there were? And for those wondering, the song was a parody of Karma Chameleon, so have fun imagining that as chase scene music. Also, I'd like to say sorry it took me so long to get this one out, but labor day weekend has been surprisingly busy. So the next thing I'd like to say is thank you to everyone who waited patiently, my reviewers, followers, and viewers, and thank you for your feed back, it's helped me keep this story entertaining. Stop by next time as Lindow reveals a big secret to Wyatt and Alisa.**


	9. The Settlement of the Rejected

**The Settlement of the Rejected**

Abandoned Storage Building

"Hibari do you read," asked Lindow over his earpiece communicator. "There's a lot of static," replied Hibari, "But I can make out most of what you're saying." "Good enough," said Lindow, "I've found our new types, they're both alive but they're also pretty banged up so we won't be able to make it to the pickup point." "What?" questioned Hibari, "Can you give me your status, why can't you make it now?"

"Too many Aragami around at the moment," answered Lindow, "And Wyatt and Alisa are wounded, so we're gonna wait until it's a bit safer to move to the pickup point, and don't worry if you can't track out location for a bit, this area's got some pretty bad signal." "Roger that," acknowledged Hibari.

While Lindow was telling Hibari the situation, Wyatt and Alisa sat a short distance away. Wyatt was examining Vajra's Bane again when Alisa, still wearing Wyatt's jacket, suddenly spoke. "About what happened back there," She said, "I'm sorry." "Oh that," said Wyatt with a hint of surprise, "I'm more worried about you, how ya holding up?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Alisa kept repeating as she started trembling again. "Hey woo woo woo," said Wyatt as he crossed the short distance between them and grabbed Alisa's shoulders in an attempt to calm her down, "I messed up back there too, remember we nearly died at least a few times because of my music player." Alisa didn't reply, but she did stop apologizing as her trembling went down a bit, but not entirely.

Wyatt was no expert, but it was obvious to him and Lindow that she was pretty rattled about what happened with the Black Vajra and the other Aragami. "Okay," said Lindow, "Time to move out."

"Where to exactly," asked Wyatt as he stood up and grabbed his damaged weapon, "I heard you say the extraction zone is out." "Nope, not the extraction zone," said Lindow, "But it'll be better than staying here." He wouldn't say anything more about it as he led them out of the building and into a misty, mountainous area.

They walked for several minutes in silence as Wyatt simply observed the mist, his eyes allowing him to step over most of the hidden rocks which might've caused him to stumble, or at least he had better luck than Alisa and Lindow. Finally, Lindow stopped at the top of one of the many rocky hillsides. "So where is this place we're gonna be hunkering down at," questioned Wyatt, finally breaking the silence.

"Right over there," Lindow pointed to one of the hills. Wyatt looked where he was pointing and had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. The hill Lindow was pointing at was covered with something that should've been devoured by the Aragami already. The entire hillside was covered with the inviting green foliage, of trees.

Protective Forest

"This is one heck of a spot you've found," said Wyatt as they walked through the area full of strange trees, "From what I've read, trees and plants should be almost nonexistent these days thanks to the Aragami devouring everything, and I doubt they'd miss a spot like this."

"Well for now let's just say these trees have a bit more attitude than most," answered Lindow. "How's that," asked Wyatt as he noticed the glowing orange veins in the trees which ran between the bark. "It means don't touch 'em," said Lindow as Wyatt was about to feel the bark on one of the trees. "Uh right," said Wyatt as he withdrew his hand and continued to follow Lindow to the edge of a cliff.

"What in the world," Wyatt blurted out as they looked out over the cliff. Below them, in the center of a clearing in the trees was a dam and behind that dam was what looked like a small community, of people! Wyatt scanned the area with his eyes, noting a child was looking out towards the trees with a pair of binoculars. It can't be, Wyatt thought as he noted the pink hoodie and brown hair, the little girl they'd picked up a few days ago with the other travelers, the ones who'd been turned away at the wall.

The girl looked up towards their direction, seeming to notice them before disappearing back into one of the many small buildings which dotted the area. "Lindow," said Wyatt, turning to his unit leader, "I think one of us has some explaining to do." "I suppose that's fair enough," said Lindow, "I do know one of your little secrets now, so first things first."

Lindow reached into his coat and pulled out a familiar pair of goggles which he tossed to Wyatt. "You'd best put those on," said Lindow, "I got no problem with those eyes of yours, heck if what you told me is true it's thanks to them that you decided to take being a God Eater seriously instead of just a quick way to death, but they might still make some of the other folks down there nervous."

"These are my spares," said Wyatt as he examined them, wiping off a couple of smudges, "Where did you find these?" "Found them caught on some rocks by the river," said Lindow, "Couldn't find your other pair though."

"They kind of got busted," said Wyatt as he placed his goggles over his eyes, "Anyway, I guess now that we're all presentable, let's go say hi to the small community."

Hidden Settlement

Now this is one heck of a setup, thought Wyatt as they walked by the many small houses which made up what he could only describe as a village community, well one complete with a large main building which was probably the center for operating the dam. Several of them were homes, while some had specialized purposes, like a greenhouse. How in the world did they even get seeds to grow crops here, thought Wyatt.

"So it is you," said the girl in the pink hoodie, breaking him from his thoughts, "I wasn't sure at first because you didn't have your jacket." "It's on loan at the moment," said Wyatt, finally taking note of the big blood spot he had on his blue shirt, "By the way, was it Lindow who brought you all here?"

"Yeah a while ago," answered the girl. "And what about everyone else," asked Wyatt, "There's only one reason I know of that they'd be here." "Everyone here was turned away by the guards at Fenrir," she confirmed, "Lindow's been helping us get by."

"I figured as much," said Wyatt as he looked over towards Lindow, who was currently talking with one of the residents, a woman who seemed to be in charge.

"By the way," asked the girl, "What happened to your sword?" "Oh my God Arc," said Wyatt as he held up the damaged weapon, "Vajra's Bane just seen better days, that's all." "Anyway we can help fix it?" asked the girl.

"I'm afraid not," said Wyatt, "All the tools and materials my weapon needs are back at Fenrir, not to mention a top engineer who knows way more about fixing these kinds of things than I do."

"Well maybe I can help in another way," said the girl, "Follow me." "Well I kind of need to-," Wyatt tried to say but the girl grabbed his hand and started leading him towards one of the warehouses.

"I'm not usually allowed in here," said the girl as she opened the door to one of the warehouses, "But an Aragami attacked not too long ago, so we're keeping it unlocked for the moment." "I can see why," said Wyatt as he looked around. The warehouse was full of different types of weapons, mainly crossbows, grenades, a few guns which had modified ammo for fighting against Aragami.

"Since your arc is broken right now, maybe you can use something in here for a temporary weapon," said the girl with a smile. "Well I suppose," said Wyatt as they walked into the warehouse, not having the heart to tell her that only a God Arc was capable of taking out Aragami. After looking around for a few moments, Wyatt's eyes fell on something he hadn't seen since he transferred from America.

"Hey do y'all happen to have a target range of sorts around here?" asked Wyatt. "Sure," said the girl, "We try to train as many adults on the weapons as we can." "Well in that case," Wyatt said as he picked up the weapon he'd spotted, a surprisingly nice looking compound bow, "I think I found my temporary weapon."

Shooting Range

And Fifth time's the charm, thought Wyatt as he finally hit the center of the target he'd been aiming at. With a little help, he'd gotten a quiver fastened on his right hip and a sling which allowed him to still carry Vajra's Bane on his back while keeping both of his hands free. "Not bad shooting," Lindow called as he walked onto the range, "Where'd you learn to use one of those things?"

"Oh this," said Wyatt as he held up the compound bow, "My grandfather was a big time bow hunter back in his day, brought some of his personal bows with us into the wall. Let me tell ya it's not a bad way to pass the time, beats kicking a can around all day."

"No kidding," said Lindow. "So where's Alisa anyway," asked Wyatt, noticing the Russian God Eater was nowhere to be seen. "I told her to go count some clouds," said Lindow. "Don't you mean sheep," said Wyatt as he went over to the target and started pulling the arrows out. "Nope, clouds," said Lindow, "It's actually really soothing, which is definitely something she needs right now."

"Well I won't argue that she's in bad shape," said Wyatt as he finished refilling the quiver on his hip, "Maybe I should go check on her." "I wouldn't recommend it," said Lindow, "Unless you like having red hand prints on your face."

"What, is she getting a change of clothes?" questioned Wyatt. "Getting a bath," said Lindow. "Oooooh," said Wyatt, trying to keep himself from visualizing a sight like that, and failing. "Besides I need your help with a little something," said Lindow, "Bring the bow along if you want, but it's mostly grunt work."

"Well I should probably do something to help out around here," said Wyatt, "Kind of feel intrusive just dropping in on these folks." "Relax," said Lindow, "These folks are plenty hospitable, at least so long as they know you're with me anyway, but if you want to help just follow me."

Community Store House:

Wyatt whistled when he saw the numerous shelves full of Fenrir supplies inside the store house. "So tell me," asked Wyatt, "How did you get approval for all of these supplies." "I didn't," said Lindow without a hint of humor in his tone.

"Wait you managed to sneak all of this out of Fenrir," Said Wyatt, surprise clear in his voice. "You don't approve," said Lindow. "No, I just find it weird to think about," answered Wyatt. "What's weird about it?" Inquired Lindow.

"I just never really thought of you being all that subtle," said Wyatt, "Let alone managing to sneak enough supplies for a small community out of the Far East Branch." "I have my ways," said Lindow as he took one of the containers, which resembled ammo boxes, off the shelf, "But it should also go without saying, don't mention this place to anyone back in Fenrir."

"Mention what place?" Wyatt asked, feigning ignorance. "Good man," said Lindow as he picked up one of the boxes, "Now, mind helping me carry some of this stuff?"

Protective Forest: Once Again

"So what is this this stuff anyway," asked Wyatt as he found himself once again venturing into the strange forest surrounding the settlement, "It looks a lot like the bias factor they use to stabilize our God Arcs." "Well I don't know all the specifics," Said Lindow, "But the easiest way to explain it is Aragami supplements."

"Supplements?" Repeated Wyatt with a raised eyebrow. "As it turns out, Aragami have a diet that's a bit all over the place," explained Lindow before the sound of heavy foot falls interrupted him. Wyatt caught sight of an ogre tail stomping through the forest and instinctively reached for Vajra's Bane on his back.

"Hold up newbie," said Lindow, "Just take a minute and watch." "But," Wyatt tried to protest. "Just watch," Lindow ordered as the ogre tail bumped into one of the trees. In another second, the tree began to shift and bulge as several orange spikes extended from the tree, impaling the surprised ogre tail multiple times, killing it in a matter of seconds.

"Oh!" Exclaimed Wayne, "So that's what you meant when you said the trees had an attitude." "Yep," said Lindow as he injected some of the supplement into one of the trees, "They can skewer Aragami as large as ogre tails, and they love these ampules, but for some reason other Aragami aren't too fond of the stuff."

"You say other Aragami," said Wyatt, putting the pieces together, "So these aren't even really trees at all are they, you're supplementing and raising Aragami."

"It shouldn't be so surprising," said Lindow, "You do remember what your God Arc is made of right." "Yeah," replied Wyatt, "Our engineer back in America drilled it into our heads, the weapons we use to fight the Aragami with are Aragami themselves."

"And just like the God Arcs," said Lindow, "We stumbled across this Aragami and now use it to defend this settlement from other Aragami." "Makes me wonder some days what we'll do once we finish killing all the predatory ones," said Wyatt.

"I got a better question for ya," said Lindow as he lit one of his cigarettes, "Why do we kill them in the first place?" "Well the simple answer to that," said Wyatt, "Is because they like to try ripping us to shreds and eating us on sight."

"But you rely on Vajra's Bane to protect yourself and others right," said Lindow, "We use what we got to to survive, so don't give up on your arc." Wyatt considered what Lindow had to say as he reached behind him and felt the broken blade of his weapon. The sound of a tree snapping and falling to the ground broke him from his thoughts.

"Sounds like trouble," said Lindow, "Let's go!" Wyatt nodded as he hurried after Lindow towards the newest threat to the small settlement.

 **And so one of Lindow's biggest secrets is revealed, but how much longer will it last. Hello again everyone, I know this chapter was a bit shorter than some of the others, but I've had to do a lot of traveling recently and haven't had as much time as I would've liked to work on my stories. But as always, I find myself saying thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers for all the creative questions, comments, and just pure encouragement. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next chapter as Wyatt puts his wits to the test against a new, fearsome Aragami.**


	10. American Bowman: Wyatt Colt

**American Bowman: Wyatt Colt**

Forest of Aragami Trees

A roar sounded through the air as Wyatt and Lindow arrived at a small cliff to get a better view of the new threat to the settlement, a Vajra. The Aragami trees spikes were useless as they broke against the Vajra's armored hide while the massive lion knocked over one tree after another in its march towards the settlement. "A Vajra," said Wyatt, "Why is it always a Vajra?"

"Guess we're just lucky that way," said Lindow when an alarm suddenly sounded back at the settlement. "Oh please tell me that's because of the Vajra," said Wyatt as he put his hand to his forehead. "I'm afraid not," said Lindow, "They only sound that alarm if an Aragami is already in the settlement."

"Outstanding," said Wyatt with an exasperated sigh. "Well I got a mission for ya newbie," said Lindow, "Get back there and protect the civilians, and keep yourself alive while you're at it." "Any idea how I'm supposed to do that without a working weapon?" Asked Wyatt.

"I've given you an order," said Lindow in a serious tone, "Now run and don't let a single person die, and as for your God Arc, simply believe in it." Wyatt wanted to argue more but he knew there was no time as he turned and ran back towards the settlement, grabbing the bow and the box of ampules while he was at it. No idea if these things will do any good, thought Wyatt as he ran through the trees, but at the very least they could serve as some kind of distraction.

Back at the Settlement

The siren continued to sound as Wyatt ran into the settlement. People were scattering everywhere as an Aragami Wyatt had only read about and seen in pictures was rampaging through the area. It looked like a cross between a knight and a scorpion with a long, pointed horn on its head and claws which appeared to form two halves of a shield at each end.

A Borg Camlann, he recalled as he raced towards it. People were fleeing in terror from it, or at least most were. One of the civilians, a man in a white shirt with dark hair, was firing at the Aragami with a crossbow. But as expected, at least to Wyatt anyway, the crossbow bolts bounced harmlessly off the Borg Camlann's armor as it raised one of its shield arms. Gotta move quick, thought Wyatt as he dropped the box of ampules so he'd have a free hand.

Just as the Aragami struck, Wyatt tackled the civilian out of the way as the ground was partially destroyed behind them. "I'm afraid that won't cut it against an Aragami," said Wyatt as he stood back up. "Then what can I do, I don't have anything else I can use?" questioned the civilian.

"Well," Wyatt was about to say when the Borg Camlann tried striking them with its tail. Wyatt managed to move just in time to grab the civilian and rush out of the way of the Aragami's large, spike-like stinger, but they were still knocked over by the force of the blow on the ground. What we really need right now, thought Wyatt as he scrambled back to his feet, is a certain Russian girl with the actual functioning weapon!

Wyatt reached for one of his grenades and was about to throw it when a little girl's voice called out. "Leave them alone!" exclaimed the girl in the pink hoodie as she threw one of the ampules at the large beast. Surprisingly, the Borg Camlann roared in surprise as it shook its head, trying to get the orange substance off of itself. Lindow was right, Wyatt realized, other Aragami don't like that stuff, in fact it seems they hate it quite a bit.

"We need to get out of here," said another one of the frightened civilians. Wyatt glanced back and noticed a small group of three or four had emerged from one of the warehouses and was trying to flee, the girl in the pink hoodie must've been one of them. "We're gonna die if we don't get out of here," said another one of the civilians as the Borg Camlann managed to regain its senses and began bearing down on them.

"Everyone," said Wyatt, getting the civilian's attention as he readied his grenade, "Grab as many of those ampules as you can and when I give the signal, run!" Enough of them seemed to understand and started grabbing some of the canisters which had spilled out of the container Wyatt had been carrying.

It was fortunate the Borg Camlann wasn't a terribly fast Aragami. The civilians just managed to get all of the ampules together as Wyatt pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it. "Now RUN!" He yelled as the grenade exploded in the Aragami's face, temporarily blinding it as everyone fled to the nearest hiding space between two of the buildings, leaving the confused Borg Camlann looking around aimlessly for a moment.

"So is this everyone," Wyatt asked as he leaned against a wall and started pulling arrows out of the quiver on his hip. "We were the only ones who were still outside," answered one of the civilians, "Everyone else is at the shelter."

"A shelter designed for regular disasters I'm guessing," said Wyatt as he peeked his head around the corner, noting the Aragami was slowly moving towards it as it seemed to be searching for its original lost prey. "There's no way it'll withstand that thing," said one of the civilians, "It was already bad enough that Fenrir left us out here to die, now everything we've worked for is gonna be destroyed too."

"Not everything," said Wyatt as he ducked back around the corner, "Yo crossbow guy, you got any string or rope in that pack of yours?" "I got some survival cord," replied the civilian with the crossbow, "But why do you need that when you have your weapon?"

"It's kind of busted at the moment," said Wyatt. "What about Lindow," asked another one of the civilians. "He's kind of tied up taking down a Vajra right now," answered Wyatt, "So it's just us for the moment, but I got a plan to slow that thing down if we all work together."

"What do you need us to do," asked the girl in the pink hoodie. "Take crossbow's, sorry don't know your real name, cord here and get all these ampules attached to the arrows I got here."

"Okay but what then," asked one of the other civilians, "We can't just slow that thing down, we have to stop it." "Still figuring that part out," replied Wyatt as he started wrapping the cord around one of his arrows and a container of ampule, "For whatever reason, Alisa's not out here tearing this thing a new one." "Man if only we had some way to get rid of that thing," said another one of the civilians.

My thoughts exactly, mused Wyatt as he poked his head back around the corner again after cutting and securing the cord on his arrow with his survival knife. Just as he was about to move back to the wall, he caught sight of the dam the settlement used for power. "Hey can you open that dam of yours all the way," asked Wyatt.

"Well yeah," answered one of the civilians as they finished attaching the ampules to the arrows, "But what does that have to do with anything?" "Well if you're all willing," said Wyatt, "I want you to open the dam at the precise moment that the Aragami is in front of it."

"Yeah we can do that," said the civilian with the crossbow, "But how are we supposed to get the Aragami in front of the dam?" "Leave that to me," said Wyatt as he managed to slip the last of the arrows back into the quiver, albeit in a much less organized manner, "And will someone please find Alisa so she at least knows there's a rampaging Aragami out here."

"I can do that," said one of the men. "I'll head to the dam," said another. "And we'll head to the store house," said the girl in the pink hoodie, "We can get more ampules there." "Thank you all," said Wyatt as he stepped back out into the open area.

"Just be careful out there," said Crossbow guy, "We're counting on you too God Eater." Wyatt responded with a quick nod and a smile as he raced towards the Aragami.

The Borg Camlann was only a couple hundred feet from the shelter when Wyatt ran up behind it, taking aim with the compound bow, he pulled back on the bowstring as the Aragami raised its head and let the first of the ampule wrapped arrows fly. It was fortunate he was aiming at such a large target as the weighted arrow fell a bit short and hit the Borg Camlann in the back of the head. The Aragami reacted in much the same way as it had when the little girl had thrown one of the ampules at it earlier as it roared in displeasure, shaking its head back and forth.

"Hey sting ##," yelled Wyatt as he fitted another arrow into the bow, "If you're looking for a fight it's over here!" The irritated Borg Camlann turned towards Wyatt then and began stomping towards him, readying its tail to strike. That's right, thought Wyatt as he began circling towards the river, follow me.

As he ran, his pursuer stabbed at him with its large tail, narrowly missing him as Wyatt jumped forward and rolled onto his side, just managing to raise the bow and fire at the oncoming Aragami before it got too close. The Borg Camlann reared as the arrow collided with its head, spraying more ampule in its face. It really doesn't like this stuff, thought Wyatt as he booked it toward the river.

The sound of multiple large footsteps told him his pursuer was right behind him, and was even more displeased than before. Just a little bit closer, he thought as he willed his legs to go faster, just a little bit closer. The Borg Camlann tried striking him with its tail a few more times, but Wyatt was able to stay just ahead of it as he reached the river and turned back towards the Aragami.

Now for the incredibly stupid part of the plan, he thought as he watched his target raise one of its shield arms. "Let's see you strike underneath!" yelled Wyatt as he charged at the Camlann, narrowly avoiding its shield arm as he slid underneath the surprised Aragami. Wyatt saw its legs shift as the monster turned to find its prey, giving him more than enough time to nock another arrow and fire. The Borg Camlann roared again as it began backing up towards the river.

"Let's see how you like swimming!" said Wyatt as he nocked the next arrow and fired, forcing the Aragami back even further. Wyatt fired another arrow, then another, and another, each one causing the Borg Camlann to back towards the river as it tried to shake the foreign substance off of its head. Just a couple more should do it, thought Wyatt as he glanced at a couple of civilians out of the corner of his eye, one of which was the little girl with more of the ampules in a wheel barrow.

Good, he thought, more than enough ampules to see this thing off. But, as Wyatt was firing another shot, the Borg Camlann raised its arms and put the two halves together, making a complete shield in front of it and deflecting the arrow. " # #," he swore aloud as he quickly nocked and fired another arrow, this time at another opening.

But once again, the Aragami deflected the arrow. Not good, Wyatt thought as he fired another shot which was deflected, before reaching for the quiver again, only to realize it was empty. "Really not good," Wyatt thought aloud as the Borg Camlann marched towards him. As Wyatt turned to run, he caught sight of the civilians again.

"Leave the ampules and run!" yelled Wyatt as the Borg Camlann lowered its head and fired a series of large spikes from it. The hot projectiles flew within mere feet of him as they destroyed a nearby building, causing an explosion which sent rubble flying everywhere. Wyatt and the civilians were all knocked over by the shower of debris as the Borg Camlann marched towards them.

So it can shoot spikes too, he thought as he struggled back to his feet and drew Vajra's Bane from his back, outstanding. The civilians had it a bit worse, however, as one of them had been pinned under some of the larger debris while the little girl was trying to get to her feet. Only got one idea left, thought Wyatt as he took a fighting stance, a real risky idea, but one way or the other I need one of those ampules.

"Mr. God Eater!" a small voice suddenly called out. Wyatt risked a glance to his right and saw the little girl with one of the ampules in her hand. "Throw it!" yelled Wyatt as he dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a swipe from one of the Aragami's shield arms as he raced towards the girl, "Just throw it this way!"

The girl quickly complied as she threw it with all her strength. Time seemed to slow in that moment as Wyatt leapt into the air, out of the way of the Borg Camlann's tail as his momentum carried him towards the canister of ampule. At the apex of his jump, Wyatt snatched the canister out of the air as he hit the ground and rolled.

Only ever let this happen one other time, Wyatt thought as he stuck the canister's injector into his Oracle bracelet, never thought I'd be forcing it to happen now. With that thought on his mind, Wyatt injected the ampule into himself. The effect was almost instantaneous as pain temporarily shot through his body as blue veins stood out against his skin. In the next moment, the parts of his God Arc which resembled eyes began to glow as he activated the devour function.

A newly regenerated mouth shot out from his damaged weapon, this time crackling with electricity for some odd reason as it clamped onto the face of the Borg Camlann. The surprised Aragami shrieked in pain as Wyatt pushed back against it, causing it to stumble backwards. Just a bit more, he thought as he put every last ounce of his strength into one final shove. With a final deafening roar, the Aragami tumbled over the side and into the large river below.

As the devour mouth retreated back into Vajra's Bane, Wyatt collapsed to a half-kneeling position as the ampule wore off. Wasn't sure if that was gonna work, he thought while trying to catch his breath. The sound of rushing waves greeted his ears then, and for Wyatt, it sounded like a symphony orchestra as the mass of water from the dam washed the Borg Camlann out of the settlement and down the mountainside.

"I think that's the hardest I've worked to kill just one Aragami," He thought aloud, "At least this time." "You did it!" squealed the girl in the pink hoodie as she tackled Wyatt with a hug, nearly knocking him over, "Thank you Mr. God Eater!"

"Oof," said Wyatt, "I've told ya before, you don't have to call me 'Mr.', the name's Wyatt." "Well thank you either way," said the girl happily as he managed to get back to his feet.

"He did it," called some of the civilians as they emerged from the dam and the shelter. "We washed it away," said some of the other civilians as they all gathered around Wyatt. Words of congratulations and camaraderie were exchanged as everyone cheered.

Well I'm not exactly used to this, thought Wyatt as people kept clapping him on the shoulder and offering words of thanks. Normally it's just kill Aragami and go home with a word of job well done. "Hey newbie," Wyatt heard a familiar voice call as he turned to see Lindow approaching, having finished dealing with the Vajra, "Nice job."

"Oh I was just following your orders," said Wyatt as he held up his God Arc, "I believed in my weapon, and a bow, arrows and a bunch of ampules, and I didn't let anyone die." "And you worked together with the civilians," said Lindow, "A good job all around." Wyatt could only smile dumbly as the rest of the civilians continued to celebrate.

You did it, Alisa thought to herself as she stared out the window at the celebrating crowd, even when you had to fight without Vajra's Bane for most of it, you still managed to fight without fear. Alisa's hand curled into a fist against the window. Meanwhile here I was, she thought as feelings of anger and inferiority washed over her, cowering in some wardrobe like a frightened child, just like that day.

She glanced one last time at the setting sun before she turned away from the window. I have to find a way to get rid of this fear, thought Alisa as her eyes settled on Wyatt's jacket, that's the only way I'll be able to kill that monster, and the only way I'll be able to pay him back.

 **And down goes the Aragami! Hello everyone, first off, sorry for such a late update on this story but it's been a bit difficult getting back on track, but fear not as the next chapter for this story will be coming out before my other story. I'd also like to give several words of thanks to my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've kept up with this story and shared their constructive criticisms and ideas, it really helps make the story even better. Be sure to stop in next time as Wyatt, Alisa, and the other members of the First Unit deal with the aftermath of their encounter with Dyaus Pita.**


	11. Mort: The Luckiest God Eater

**Mort: The Luckiest God Eater**

Far East HQ:

"Stupid, idiotic, reckless-," Licca said as she continually swung at Wyatt with each word. "Take it easy," said Wyatt as he held up his arms to fend off Licca's thrashing, "I got impaled and washed down a river yesterday." "And worried me half to death," seethed Licca, "For all I knew you were dead and when you finally do show up, you bring back your God Arc in the worst condition I've ever seen, I mean do you have any idea how long it might take me to fix this?"

"I didn't break it on purpose," Wyatt tried to explain, "That black Vajra was a freak of Aragami nature, it messed us all up." "Well please explain to me why you're the only one to bring back a broken weapon?" Questioned Licca as she put her hands on her hips. "We got scattered by that thing," said Wyatt, "I wound up fighting it by myself because everyone else was already thrashed to one degree or another and it somehow broke Vajra's Bane with its blades."

"Well you're lucky I haven't got the time or energy right now or I'd keep thrashing you," stated Licca as she pointed her finger at his chest, "So take your time on medical leave to get some training in with a weapon you can't break while I work on fixing the one you've already broken!" "Right," said Wyatt as he held up his hands defensively, "That I can definitely do."

"Good," said Licca as her temper seemed to fall for a moment, "Now get out of here so I can work." Wyatt had no intention of protesting as he turned and headed out the door. "And Wyatt," said Licca, stopping him before he was about to walk out the door, "I'm glad you're alright." Wyatt gave a small smile and a wave in response to that as he headed out the door.

They'd been evacuated by helicopter back to the base earlier that evening, using a cover story Lindow had concocted to explain their long degree of radio silence without mentioning the small settlement. That of course meant that Wyatt couldn't keep the compound bow either, even if some of the civilians wanted him to have it as a gift. But the real bad news was that, because of Alisa's current broken mental state and Wyatt's own broken weapon, they'd both been placed on medical leave until further notice.

But it wasn't Wyatt's predicament that weighed on his mind right now, but rather Alisa's. Especially considering her mental issues could've wound up dooming everyone in that settlement to death by Borg Camlann. He still remembered the conversation he'd had with her yesterday after they'd washed the blasted thing away.

Hidden Settlement: The Night Before

Wow, thought Wyatt, for a small settlement these folks sure know how to throw a party, but I don't think I can really eat any more food. It had taken a surprisingly short amount of time to clean up the damage from the Aragami's rampage, and there was still a good number of supplies to go around, so the people of the settlement had decided to have a little celebration in thanks for the help Lindow and Wyatt had given them. It had been going for a few hours now with lots of eating, drinking, singing, story-telling, and just general camaraderie.

Lindow had, of course, drank his fair share of beer and was now going on about one of his many escapades as a God Eater. As for Wyatt, he'd been thanked by basically everyone in the settlement, and since he couldn't really bring anything back from the settlement to Far East HQ due to the need to keep the place secret, he'd been asked to try just about every type of food they had to offer. While he did appreciate it, even a God Eater had a limit to how much food they could eat before their stomachs felt like they were gonna split open.

So after a while he had to bow out for a bit and made his way inside one of the main buildings in the settlement. There was also another reason he needed to leave, one that he hadn't mentioned to Lindow or anyone else, Alisa. She hadn't shown herself at all the entire day after the Aragami attack and the only people who'd seen her could only tell him that she was in the main building the last time they saw her. It was almost like she was hiding, thought Wyatt.

As he wandered the building, he didn't bother flipping on any of the lights as he went from room to room, his altered eyes allowed him to see plenty in the dark. Where was it they said the bath was again, he mused as he turned a corner and approached the door to what was likely a much larger room than any of the others. Just as he was about to turn the knob, he heard a noise coming from the other side, like someone swinging a weapon.

Wyatt pressed his ear to the door for a moment and listened. The sound of a swinging weapon repeated itself again and again, and he also noticed the sound of someone breathing heavily, likely from exhaustion. Please have all your clothes on, thought Wyatt as he tested the knob and slowly turned it, opening the door a crack.

As he peeked in, he saw Alisa, thankfully only missing her boots, gloves, and trademark hat, in the middle of the room, an overturned tub not too far from her as she stood and swung her God Arc in a few practice strikes. But it was obvious something was wrong, her form was a bit off and her weapon seemed to tremble in her hands. As the Russian God Eater made another practice swing, the weapon seemed to slip from her shaking hands and go clattering to the floor.

Alisa swore in Russian as she went to pick up her weapon again. "You, uh, need a hand," asked Wyatt, startling his teammate a bit. "Oh Wyatt," she said upon realizing who it was, "It's just you." "I guess you were expecting Lindow," said Wyatt as he crossed the room and stopped a few feet from Alisa so he wouldn't have to talk too loudly.

"I had at least expected him before you," said Alisa as she went to pick up her Arc, "Did he send you?" "Nope," responded Wyatt, "Though I'm pretty sure he'd want you to know there is a party going on out there."

"Then you should go," said Alisa as she turned back towards the window and started swinging her weapon again, "I imagine they'll be wondering where you are by now." "And what should I tell them about you if someone asks," questioned Wyatt, "Because I've been wondering where you were way before there was a party."

"Tell Lindow, or anyone else who wants to know for that matter that I've got more important things to do than go to some party," said Alisa with her back still facing Wyatt. "And what should I tell Lindow when he asks where you were during the Aragami's attack," inquired Wyatt, "That you fell asleep in the bath tub or some-."

"I DON'T CARE!" Alisa snapped suddenly as she tossed her God Arc to the floor, "Tell him whatever you like, tell him he was right even." Alisa stood trembling as she looked at her shaking hands. "Right about what?" asked a surprised Wyatt, not really knowing what to say.

"My hands can't properly wield a God Arc right now," said Alisa as the edge went out of her voice before she turned to him, "Do you want to know why?" "Only if you truly want to tell me," replied Wyatt. Instead of answering right away, Alisa reached up and placed her hand on his goggles, slowly pushing them upwards to reveal his eyes.

She was only able to look at them for a few seconds before a look of fear crossed her face. In another moment she turned away, her body trembling again as her breathing became uneven. Wyatt quickly pulled his goggles back down as he waited for her fit to pass. "It's g-gotten worse," she said as she finally looked at him again, "I can't even look at your eyes anymore."

"How do my eyes make you do, whatever it was that just happened," asked Wyatt. Alisa sighed deeply as she began to explain. "Your eyes look like an Aragami's," said Alisa, "Ever since that day six years ago, I've had a crippling mental condition which is set off by the mere sight of them, before I could control it with medication and help from my personal physician, Doctor Oguruma, but ever since we encountered Pita it's gotten worse, the only reason I wasn't trembling at the sight of your eyes before was because I managed to get one last little bit of my medicine in my system before seeing them."

"What exactly happened six years ago," asked Wyatt, "I'm assuming it has to do with that Black Vajra." "Dyaus Pita," said Alisa, "The last time I saw it, I'd been playing a game of hide and seek with my parents, and then it showed up and-it was all my fault!" She began trembling again as she grabbed her head in a similar manner to when they'd been surrounded by the ogre tails.

Acting more on instinct than anything, Wyatt pulled her into a hug, allowing her to bury her head in his shoulder. "If only I hadn't wanted to play that stupid little game," she said, "They might still be alive, it's all my fault, all my fault!"

"Just take it easy," Wyatt finally said, trying his best to console her, "Nothing was your fault, nobody could've known what was going to happen that day." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she kept repeating while he was simply at a loss for words.

Eventually she'd simply tired herself out and Wyatt led her back to the room she was given to sleep in. She'd mentioned handing his jacket back to him, but he simply told her to hold onto it in case she needed an extra pillow or something until they got back to Fenrir.

End Flashback

Wyatt's mind was still pretty occupied when a bright blue light suddenly blinded him. "Ah hey," he said as he held up his hands, "What's the deal?" "Seems you're still pretty sensitive to LED light," said a voice Wyatt hadn't heard in a while. "Mort," he said as the spots cleared from his eyes, "What the heck are you doing here, and what in the world are you wearing?"

"I was trying to blend in with the culture," he answered. Wyatt simply shook his head at the sight of his friend. Mort was one of Wyatt's friends back in the American branch of Fenrir, a somewhat tall individual with spiky blond hair, who was currently wearing dark green samurai pants, sandals, what appeared to be a green karate gee top, a bluish-black feudal lord's coat and one of those rice shade hats that were stereotypically worn in old Japanese cinema.

"You do know that most Japanese people only wear that stuff for formal and traditional events right, even before the Aragami came," stated Wyatt. "Well that ## ing figures," said Mort, "And I spent good money on these clothes too." "Well at least you'll make a memorable first impression," said Wyatt, "That's not a bad thing."

"Well hopefully a first impression is all I'll have to make around here," said Mort, "I heard a bunch of strong Aragami were supposed to be around here, but everyone seems so laid back, I mean come on how's a guy supposed to get himself killed in a peaceful place?" "Well I imagine you tried jumping out of the plane on the way here," said Wyatt, "Without a parachute, again."

"I was going to jump out once we reached cruising altitude," said Mort, "But I'd tried a new brand of poison the night before, a rip off really all it did was keep me in excruciating pain most of the night, so I fell asleep for most of the ride, by the time I woke up we were already coming in for a landing."

"Did you jump anyway," asked Wyatt. "Heck yeah I jumped," answered Mort in a matter of fact tone, "But we were too low and I survived the fall, spent a good bit of yesterday in the infirmary." "I wonder if the director thought you were trying to avoid going out to fight," Wyatt wondered aloud.

"Shoot it turns out it didn't matter whether or not I was able to go out and fight," said Mort, "They just needed me here so some doctor called 'Socks-cocky' or something like that could run some tests on that special little trait of mine and complete this funky machine he was workin' on." "You mean Dr. Sakaki," Wyatt corrected.

"That's what I said Sack-Khaki," said Mort, causing Wyatt to roll his eyes before responding. "So what sort of machine were they working on," he asked. "I didn't understand all the techno-babble," replied Mort, "But apparently it's supposed to do the opposite of what I do and attract Aragami, but I'll believe that when I see it."

"Well in the meantime," said Wyatt, "have you had lunch yet?" "Not in the Far East cafeteria," said Mort. "Well come on," said Wyatt, "I need to introduce ya to some of the new friends I've made."

Far East Cafeteria

"And so there I was hoppin' up and down yelling at a whole pack of congous," said Mort, "and not a single one of them even shot at me, I mean come on I was wearing bright red that day and everything and all they did was look at me funny." "No way," said Kota, "Are you sure it wasn't just because the rest of your team got the drop on them that they didn't attack you?"

"Nah, me and one of the other guys, Jed, had a wager going," said Wyatt, "He bet they'd attack him within a minute, I betted he'd last three." "And you just waited for him to be attacked?" asked Hibari, who'd joined them in order to see how Wyatt and the others were holding up.

"Annoyingly they had me covered," said Mort, "Something about needing to make sure we all got back okay, but ever since I became a God Eater all the Aragami seem to want to do is ignore me."

"Maybe they just think you smell bad," said Soma. "Most people call me lucky," said Mort, "If I was really lucky I would've been eaten already so I don't have to deal with a post-apocalyptic wasteland."

"I'm certain you don't really mean that," said Hibari. "No people really do call me lucky," replied Mort, "It's a pain in the ## some days." "I meant the part about being eaten," Hibari corrected him.

"Well how lucky does everyone even say you are anyway," asked Kota. "They call him 'Mort: The Luckiest God Eater,' at least back in America anyway," Wyatt answered. "I personally think it's a terrible title," said Mort, "I'm not really that lucky at all."

"On the battlefield there's no such thing as luck," said Soma, "And anyone who thinks they can rely on such a thing is a fool."

"You'd be surprised," said Wyatt with a smirk as he caught a glimpse of a familiar pink-haired God Eater, "But maybe it'd be better if you actually saw what we're talking about." "How're we supposed to do that?" asked Kota. "Will it involve the possibly of accidental death," asked Mort.

"You could say that," said Wyatt as he stood up and waved, "Hey Kannon are you busy?" "What do you want?" Kannon yelled across the cafeteria. "I got someone who can help with target practice, interested?" said Wyatt. "Did they lose a bet," asked Kannon, "Or are you making them volunteer?"

"That's the best part," Wyatt called back, "They're volunteering of their own free will!" "Oh they're new," said Kannon, "Why didn't you say so, sure I got some free time!" "Uh, are you sure this is a good idea," said Kota, "I mean you of all people should know about-."

"It'll be fine," said Wyatt, "In fact you should come along too, I hear you've missed a couple sessions in the training room." Kota simply rubbed his head and laughed nervously at that.

Fenrir Training Simulator

"Who taught you how to shoot!?" Yelled Mort as he ran around the simulated battle area, "All you guys are hitting are the Aragami, I'm right here!" "We're not trying to hit you!" Kota called back as he shot a simulated ogre tail which was heading for Mort.

"Why the ## not," Mort called back, "I'm not that small of a target, so challenge yourselves a little!" "But we're not supposed to be trying to hit our comrades," Whispered Kota.

"Speak for yourself," said Kannon as she fired her weapon and hit a simulated congou, "I'm trying to hit anything that moves down there!" "She really gets into this stuff," Wyatt whispered to Kota as he stood by and continued to watch. Kota simply nodded his head as they continued firing at the simulated targets. Weird thing is, thought Wyatt, Kannon's actually hitting more Aragami on accident this time as opposed to hitting a teammate on accident, maybe she's finally improving.

"You couldn't hit the broadside of an Uroboros," yelled Mort, "And those things are huge!" "Oh that is it!" Declared Kannon as she fired even more wildly, bombarding the simulator area. Or maybe not, thought Wyatt as the intercom suddenly buzzed.

"Wyatt Colt, please report to engineering, Wyatt Colt to engineering. "Uh oh," said Wyatt aloud, "I guess Licca found something else to make her mad at me."

"Best get going Wyatt," Mort called, "Never a good idea to keep a lady waiting." "Yeah I got it," said Wyatt as he headed out the door and towards engineering.

Far East Engineering

"Okay whatever it is," said Wyatt as he walked into engineering for the second time that day, "I promise I didn't do it, or at least not intentionally." "Actually this is about fixing your current problem," said a silver-haired man wearing glasses and some kind of brown, robe-like coat.

"Uh, who are you and why are you here," asked Wyatt with a raised eyebrow. "Oh this is the head of oracle technology and the founder of God Arc development, Dr. Sakaki," said Licca, who'd poked her head out from behind the work bench which currently held Vajra's Bane. "Oh so you're Dr. Sacks Cocky," said Wyatt accidently, "I mean Sucks at hockey, I mean # #."

"It seems Licca was right about you, Wyatt Colt," said Dr. Sakaki, who seemed to be squinting constantly as he spoke, "You are certainly a one of a kind individual." "Yeah sorry," said Wyatt, "I just ran into a friend who also had trouble remembering how your name went, I guess it rubbed off on me."

"No need to worry," said Sakaki, "As for why I'm here, Licca asked me to come by and take a look at your God Arc." "Oh," said Wyatt, "I guess I broke it worse than I thought."

"Yes and no," said Sakaki, "While it is true that a blade can chip from time to time due to a severe lack of maintenance against strong Aragami that was not the reason for the damage to Vajra's Bane, as I hear you've named it."

"Well I mean I did drop it off for scheduled maintenance," said Wyatt, "Any excuse to talk to a friend and all that." "You'll have to do better than that," said Licca, "It's still broken." Wyatt simply laughed nervously before drooping his head.

"But that is the truly interesting part about it," said Sakaki, "You're weapon cracked and lost large chunks of the blade because it became overloaded, with electrical energy, energy which would normally be deflected by the shield."

"Yeah it kind of got sheared off within the first minute of the fight, but wait," said Wyatt, "God Arcs aren't supposed to absorb energy, at least not the normal ones." "Ordinarily no," said Sakaki, "But as you know, Aragami have reached their current state by rapid evolution and in this case your God Arc, which is basically a manmade Aragami, appears to have had its evolution triggered again by fighting Dyaus Pita."

"Why only mine though?" Asked Wyatt, "Me, Alisa, Kota and Sakuya all got messed up by that thing." "Well to answer that we must also examine you," stated Sakaki, "So feel free to remove those goggles of yours, I'm actually quite curious to see this unique characteristic of yours." "I thought the goggles were a unique characteristic," said Licca. "Not quite," said Wyatt as he removed his trademark head gear.

"What in the-," Licca said as she approached Wyatt, waving her hand in front of his eyes, "Are those like contacts or something?" "Nope," he answered, "My eyes have been this way as long as I've been a God Eater, I know it can be kind of creepy for first-timers." Licca didn't seem to hear the last part of the explanation as she moved a finger back and forth in front of his face.

"And I can see perfectly fine," said Wyatt, trying not to follow the movement of her hand as she started moving it closer then farther from his face, "Seriously I had enough eye doctor appointments to last a lifetime." "And they are indeed fascinating," said Sakaki, "It simply goes to show how much we still have to learn about Oracle cells and their effects on living things."

"Well maybe we can learn more by seeing if Vajra's Bane can even be fixed-OU," said Wyatt. "Whoops, sorry about that," said Licca, having accidently poked him in the eye, "So I guess we better get to that examination." "Feel free to leave out the eye exam," said Wyatt as he rubbed his throbbing eye socket.

The examination didn't take too long, all that was really needed was for Wyatt to lay down and go through a scanner similar to an MRI machine. What had him concerned was the looks on both Licca and Sakaki's faces when the examination had finished.

"Interesting," said Sakaki, "It seems out of all your teammates who encountered Pita, you had the most direct contact with it." "If by direct contact you mean impalement," said Wyatt, "Yeah I had some very 'direct' contact from its claw."

"Well it appears that not only was your weapon overloaded from absorbing too much of Pita's energy," said Sakaki, "But you also have trace amounts of Pita's unique oracle cells within you, which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem except it seems you also recently came into contact with a certain type of ampule." "You'll have to ask Lindow about those," Wyatt said, "I had to use one for an emergency."

"Well the good news is we can revive Vajra's Bane," said Sakaki. "Well that's great," said Wyatt, with a bit of excitement. "The bad news is we'll need to adjust it to handle absorbing high amounts of energy," Said Licca, "So we basically have to rebuild it almost completely from scratch." "Ouch," said Wyatt. "We'll also need to temporarily remove your oracle bracelet as well," said Sakaki, "In order to get compatibility right."

"Big ouch," Wyatt said as he looked at the bracelet on his wrist, remembering how painful it was when it was clamped on. "There's still time before we reach that stage of restoration," said Sakaki, "So you're free to go for now." "Well I'm just glad to know Vajra's Bane can be fixed," said Wyatt as he headed for the door, "So do what you gotta do Doc, and Licca-."

He tried to think of what to say, "Thanks for working on my God Arc up to this point." "It is my job," said Licca with a sigh, "Just try to stay out of trouble before I get it fixed and don't forget to put your goggles back on." Wyatt nodded with a small smile as he slipped his goggles back over his eyes and headed out the door.

The Next Day

Wyatt was making his way through the God Arc armory when he bumped into someone he hadn't seen in at least a couple days. "Sakuya," said Wyatt as he approached her. "Oh Wyatt," she said as she finished checking her weapon, "It's good to see you, how are you holding up."

"Pretty good considering the agonizing # # I encountered over the last couple of days," answered Wyatt, "What about you, I haven't seen you out of your room in a bit." "I had a lot on my mind," said Sakuya, "But Lindow finally pulled me out of my funk."

"Ah we all got the short end of the stick on that last one," said Wyatt as he looked over and noted Kota, Soma, and a few other God Eaters getting their Arcs out of their storage areas, even Mort. "Though I do wish I could tag along with y'all on this, oh crap," said Wyatt as he hid behind Sakuya, "Is this a joint mission with the second unit?"

"Yeah it is," said Sakuya as she followed Wyatt's line of sight, curious as to what would make him act this way, "But maybe it's good that you're not." Over in the far corner of the room was Kannon getting her weapon out and checking it over.

"Tell you what," said Sakuya, "Why don't you sit in the command center and listen in on the mission, and hope that Kannon can't shoot you all the way from the mission area." "Well it's better than just messing around waiting for my weapon to get fixed," said Wyatt.

"Just try to keep comm traffic low," said Sakuya as she moved to head out, "Wish us luck." Wyatt gave her a thumbs up and waved at Kota, before quickly exiting the room when Kannon caught sight of him. Good luck out there guys, he thought, I'll do what I can from the side lines.

 **Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mort, the newest character who will be helping to liven up the world of God Eater. Also, sorry this got out a bit late but the weekend got busy. But once again I find myself saying thank you to all my reviewers, followers, and viewers for getting this story over seven hundred views and keeping it going with constructive criticism and encouragement. So stop by next time as Wyatt must figure out a way to help the joint Units get out of a particularly nasty jam.**


	12. History Over the Radio

**History Over the Radio**

Far East Command Center

As always the room was filled with the sound of multiple voices and keyboards typing away as Tsubaki stood near the main monitor with a microphone in her ear, communicating with the team in the field. Wyatt had never really sat in on one of these things before, usually because he was one of the ones in the field. But for obvious reasons, namely his current lack of a God Arc, he couldn't right now.

So all he knew to do at the moment was take a seat on one of the risers and just listen to what was happening. "Is there something you need Mr. Colt," asked Tsubaki as she took note of his presence in the room. "Just felt like watching and listening if that's alright with you," answered Wyatt.

"Sakuya, give me a mission update," said Major Amamiya as she turned back towards the screen. I guess that's as close to a yes as I'm gonna get right now, thought Wyatt as Sakuya answered over the com. "We're entering the area now," said Sakuya, "So far no Aragami are visible at the moment." "Seriously where are these things," said Mort, "I'm trying to die here but not of boredom."

"I'm reading heavy Aragami activity just thirty meters ahead," said Hibari, who just happened to be at one of the stations in the control room, "Watch the exits on the left and at the center." "I'm seeing six or seven congou in the area," Sakuya reported over the radio.

"Move towards the center," Ordered Tsubaki, "Lure them to you and take them out." "I call being the bait," said Mort. Some mission, thought Wyatt, six or seven congou alone is enough to be a problem, and with the other Aragami out there it's no wonder they sent out two units, plus Mort. Despite this, the first and second units appeared to be doing well as he watched one yellow arrow after another go out on the screen as the number of Aragami in the area was slowly cut down.

It's like they get to be gladiators today, Wyatt mused as he studied the map's layout from where he was sitting, fighting monsters in an old stadium. One which was originally meant for ball games, but a stadium nonetheless. He was about to make more comparisons but he was broken from this thoughts when a massive cracking sound filled the room as the noise generated by something collapsing could be heard over the radio.

Oh no, thought Wyatt as his comrade's frightened yells sounded over the intercom next, the stadium grounds were too unstable to withstand the fight. "Is everyone alright," Asked Major Amamiya, "I need a sit rep." "The ground collapsed," said Sakuya, "But we're alright, no casualties in the First Unit." "Damn it," added Mort, "I'm alive too."

"Tatsumi what's the status of your unit?" questioned Hibari at her station. "The Second Unit's alright too," answered Tatsumi as the roar of an Aragami sounded in the background, "Crap, move away from the hole!" "What's going on?" asked Hibari, a slight nervousness creeping into her voice.

"Congou are coming through the hole above us," reported Sakuya as the sound of more Aragami filled the background. "Pull back joint unit," ordered Tsubaki. "Where?" Asked Tatsumi over the com. "Hibari, I need a map," said Tsubaki.

"I'm trying but there doesn't seem to be any data," said Hibari as she typed quickly on her keyboard, "All I know is it's an older underground facility." "Then we should fight our way back to the surface," said one of the members of Unit 2.

"The opening will just collapse more if we try to climb out," stated Soma. "I got no problem with that," said Mort. "The rest of us do," said Kota.

"So what, we keep going underground," asked Tatsumi. "If we do there's no guarantee of an exit," said Sakuya. "On your two O'clock Sakuya!" said Kota as the sound of more Aragami filled the com.

"There is an exit!" Wyatt said as he sprang to his feet and moved towards the monitor, "Keep moving back underground and you should be able to find it!" "What are you talking about," asked Tsubaki. "That's an old sports stadium," explained Wyatt as he pointed at the display, "They often had entrances and exits which ran underneath them for receiving and storing supplies, delivery trucks, the works."

"Hey is that Wyatt," asked Kota over the com. "Wyatt, the perv who broke into my room?" said Kannon, "Why's he on the line?" "For the last time that was an accident," said Wyatt.

"Not the way she told it," said Mort. "Focus guys," said Tatsumi, "We need a way out of here." "Like I said," Repeated Wyatt, "Head deeper underground."

"And what guarantee do you have that an exit is still there?" asked Major Amamiya. "I'm afraid I ain't got a guarantee," said Wyatt, "But one thing that is a guarantee is if they try to go back up, most of them aren't gonna make it back."

A tense silence seized the room as the Major tried to reach a decision. "I think we should try it," said Sakuya, "Truth is we're out of options at this point." "I'm game for the going back up and dying-uff," Mort was cut off by someone apparently punching him in the stomach.

Tsubaki still looked unsure for a moment, but finally she gave an order. "Keep moving back underground," she said, "And let me know if you hit an exit."

"Roger," said the unit leaders over the microphone. "They might hit a wall first," said Wyatt, "If they do they'll need to move along it until they see an exit." "What would they need to look for," asked Tsubaki. "Possibly a sewer drain," admitted Wyatt, "But it's better than being eaten."

"Hey we hit a wall here," said Kota. "What do we do next?" asked Sakuya. The Major thought for a moment before speaking. "Hibari, get Wyatt a headset," she said. "Roger," said Hibari as she handed one to Wyatt.

"Alright start moving left along the wall," said Wyatt as he finished putting the earpiece on his head, "According to the display you should be coming up on some kind of exit." "I see something," said Tatsumi. "It's a storm drain," said Sakuya. "Oh thank goodness," said Kannon, "Mort said we might have to tromp around in a sewer!"

"I only said it might be a sewer drain," commented Mort. "And if it was you'd definitely go with being eaten right," said Wyatt. "Focus," said Tsubaki.

"Right," Said Wyatt, "Move into the storm drain, there are no Aragami down that way." "I can see light," said Kota as the joint unit moved down the storm drain. "Too bad we can't take out those Aragami chasing us," said Tatsumi.

"Well there might be a way you could do that," said Wyatt as he looked at the map, "Any of you ever study a pincer maneuver?" "I have," said Sakuya. "It's a fairly well-known tactic," added Tatsumi. "What's a pincer maneuver?" asked Kota. "It's how you're balls are gonna get put in a vice for sleeping through combat class," said Mort. "What!" Exclaimed Kota.

"Just keep following the First Unit and Tatsumi forward," said Wyatt with a bit of a sigh, "Kannon, you and the remaining member of your unit take up positions on either side of the tunnel entrance, and Mort, you can be the bait."

"Alright!" cheered Mort. The joint unit did as instructed with four of them moving forward, Mort acting as bait and two of them hiding while Wyatt watched the arrows on the map which indicated the Aragami.

Wait for it, Wyatt thought as the line of Aragami moved by the two dots on either side of the tunnel, not noticing the God Eaters lying in wait, and completely ignoring Mort. As the last of them entered the tunnel, Wyatt gave the signal. "Blast 'em now!" said Wyatt.

The joint unit made their attack as the sound of blasting and slashing could be heard over the coms. In mere minutes the surrounded Aragami were decimated. "Whew, glad that worked," sighed Wyatt as he turned to whisper to Hibari, "Don't tell them, but I was half afraid some of them might hit each other in the maneuver."

"You're still on coms," Hibari pointed out. "You mean me don't you?!" exclaimed Kannon, her voice blasting in Wyatt's ear thanks to the earpiece. "I did not say you, specifically, would hit someone," said Wyatt as he pulled the head set off and rubbed his ear. "Oh you were thinking it," said Kannon.

"Kota could've just as easily hit someone," said Wyatt, "Shooting in a circular formation is risky." "Hey I don't shoot that bad," said Kota. "You all shoot terribly in my opinion," said Mort, "It's like you weren't even trying to hit me."

"Is he always like this," asked Hibari as the joint unit continued to bicker. "For as long as I've known him," answered Wyatt.

A Little While Later

"Wyatt!" exclaimed Kota as he ran into the room and basically tackled him, "You saved our tails out there!" "It was just a bit of planning and a lot of luck," Said Wyatt, "Also, personal space please." "Sorry I'm just so grateful," said Kota as he released his hold on Wyatt.

"We all owe ya one," said Tatsumi as he and another member of the second unit went walking by. "I don't," said Mort as he walked in the room, "I'm still walking around, I thought for sure that collapse and all the Aragami would get me this time, what a letdown." "Hey there's always next time," replied Wyatt, clearly used to his old friend's odd attitude.

"Hey," said Soma, his back turned to Wyatt despite the fact that he was obviously talking to him, "Tell Sakaki to hurry up and get your God Arc fixed already." "I'll uh, do that," said Wyatt, surprised at Soma's somewhat friendly comment. "Hey perv," said a familiar voice behind Wyatt, causing him to tense up involuntarily.

"Uh hey Kannon," said Wyatt, turning around nervously, "Once again I promise I wasn't talking about you hitting someone on accident." "Forget it," said Kannon before thrusting her hand forward, which made Wyatt flinch. "Let's just call it even," said Kannon with her hand still extended, "I'll forgive you for barging into my room this time."

"I, uh, can work with that," said Wyatt as he reached out and shook her hand, before she yanked him closer to her. "Just now that 'even' means I don't owe you a thing, so don't try to hold this over my head," Said Kannon. "Wouldn't dream of it," replied Wyatt, slightly less nervously. "Good," said Kannon as she let go of his hand and gave him the smile she gave everyone else, "Now I have some cookies to bake, so bye bye for now."

"Uh later," said Wyatt with a wave as Kannon walked off. "Gee that was weird," said Kota. "I think she's a little bipolar," whispered Wyatt as they both walked towards the door. As they were about to exit, Major Amamiya and Hibari stopped them.

"Tell me," said Tsubaki, "How did you know about the stadium's structure?" "Oh that," said Wyatt, "I saw the layout of some of them once when I was looking through the historical archives, it's kind of a hobby of mine." "Interesting," said Tsubaki as she turned towards the door, "Not bad work, Hibari."

"The director is calling for a strategy meeting at 1900 hours, attendance is mandatory," said Hibari as Tsubaki went ahead through the doorway. "Well I guess I'll see you there," said Kota as he also headed out through the door. "Wyatt," said Hibari, who was still standing by the door, "Thanks for getting Tatsumi and the others back alive, I know you don't hear it often but I thought you were pretty cool back there."

"It was nothin' really," said Wyatt, rubbing the back of his head. "Just take the complement," said Sakuya from behind him, "After all your plan helped me out of there too, and I know potential when I see it." "Well the First Unit would have a lot more problems without our mother hen," said Wyatt.

"Oh so I'm a hen now am I," said Sakuya as she grabbed Wyatt and put him in a head lock, "Then I guess that makes you the jack ##." "I think the common name is a mule-ow," said Wyatt as his unit's second in command gave him a noogie. "I suppose you've earned that," said Sakuya as she released Wyatt, "Now come on, we got a meeting to get too."

Fenrir Assembly Hall

Wyatt sat with his unit on the metal bleachers, noting that there was no sign of Alisa or Lindow for some reason. This seems like a bad time to be missing a meeting, thought Wyatt as he looked around at all the assembled units who'd taken up nearly every seat in the assembly hall. Directing his attention back up front, Wyatt say Director Schicksal take a breath as he began his speech.

"As you know," Began the Director, "the number of Aragami grows every day and since all of our resources are directed at defense we lack the necessary personnel for attacking." Well that's somewhat common knowledge here, thought Wyatt as the director continued.

"While our efforts have been focused on gathering resources for survival, it has made construction on the Aegis project difficult," said the Director, "But say we had the capability to control the behavior of the Aragami?" A murmur ran through the crowd at that statement as Schicksal pulled up a picture of an octagon-shaped device with rectangular devices jutting out of four of its sides. "This Aragami guidance system we've developed sends out a signal which lures in specific species of Aragami so long as they are within range," explained Director Schicksal.

"Using the devices we will lure specific types of Aragami to certain points and then bring all the might of the God Eaters down on them," he said, "It is our hope that we can gather the needed cores to complete the Aegis project with this mission and end the cycle of death created by the Aragami, the operation codenamed Meteorite!"

 **And so the plot moves forward as the God Eaters gather for the biggest operation in Fenrir's history, and Wyatt demonstrates his historical knowledge. Oh and hello again everyone, sorry if this got out a bit late but I had a bit of difficulty working on the My Hero Academia fan fiction I got going. For those of you who've kept up with this story, thanks, and thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've sent me both constructive criticism and notes of encouragement, it really helps. And be sure to come by next time as Wyatt learns why Soma is known as the harbinger of death.**


	13. Reaper Meets Luckster

**Reaper Meets Luckster**

Fenrir Assembly Hall

"Those of you here now will be responsible for setting up the guiding devices needed for operation meteorite," said Tsubaki, "The installation and activation will be handled by a special tech team, while your mission will be to protect them." So these must be the devices Mort was brought here to help test, thought Wyatt as he sat in the bleachers with the rest of the assembled God Eaters. "Now there are five devices," continued Major Amamiya, "Each requiring a unit to help guard. The following leaders for each unit are as follows; Sakuya Tachibana, Tatsumi O'Mori, Brendan Bardell, Gina Dickinson, and Wyatt Colt."

"Run that last one by me again," said Wyatt, now paying full attention as a murmur ran through the crowd. "I think she just appointed you for a leadership position," said Sakuya. "Great I wasn't hearing wrong," said Wyatt as he turned back towards the Major, "Hey, I hate to point this out but I still don't have a weapon."

"You can refuse the position," stated Tsubaki, "Just remember that Aegis is a critical mission for us." Yeah I feel like I got a whole lot of choice right now, thought Wyatt before answering. "If you think I can pull it off," said Wyatt with a bit of a shrug, "Then why not, I accept."

"Good," said Major Amamiya, "Now as for the rest of the unit assignments, Soma, you'll be on Wyatt's team." "Roger," said Soma in his usual non-emotional tone. Oh this oughta be good, thought Wyatt as Tsubaki continued with the unit assignments.

"Hey Soma," said Wyatt as he caught up to the silver-haired God Eater, "I know we've had a couple of rough patches here and there, but I, uh, thought I'd let you know that I'm still looking forward to working with you." "Don't bother with formalities," answered Soma in his usual dismissive tone, "It's just another mission." With that, he walked away, leaving Wyatt standing in the hallway by himself.

Well so much for that, thought Wyatt, I'd hoped I'd be able to at least get along with the guy considering it's mostly just us for this mission. One of the hallway doors opened at that moment as a pair of God Eaters Wyatt didn't know came walking out. "Man you got the short stick," said one of the God Eaters, snapping Wyatt out of his thoughts. "How so," he asked. "The dudes a grim reaper," said the other God Eater, "So watch your back out there, or you'll be his next victim."

Before Wyatt could ask what they meant by that, both of the God Eaters had already walked away. Grim reaper, he thought, I know the guy's got a grim attitude but he ain't been a reaper so far. He took another few moments to ponder if what he'd just heard was really true before deciding it wasn't worth thinking about. Come to think of it, I got an appointment with Dr. Sakaki right now, he reminded himself, I'll ask about Soma then.

Dr. Sakaki's Lab

"So that's the gist of it," said Wyatt as he explained his situation to Sakaki. "I see," said Sakaki, "I wish the director had waited just a bit longer before we started placing the devices but I guess it can't be helped." "Well at the very least I need something to hold the Aragami off out there," said Wyatt, "Since we don't actually need to kill them this time I could probably get away with just a dull blade."

"Licca and I can get the shield working," said Sakaki, "But a blade won't be possible, though since you're with Soma you likely won't need much more than a shield anyway." "Well that's a reassuring thought," said Wyatt, "Though according to some I'm gonna be working with a grim reaper, what's that about anyway?"

"Ah yes," said Sakaki, "Soma has often been called an harbinger of death." "I get the feeling he's not called that just because he's good at killing Aragami," said Wyatt. "Let's just say fate works in interesting ways," answered Sakaki, "For some, such as you, what should have been a curse wound up being a gift, while others such as Soma, received a gift which wound up being a curse."

"While that is a really true and poetic line," said Wyatt, "It still doesn't tell me what Soma's deal is." "You should be able to learn all you need to from a terminal, that way you can draw your own conclusions," said Sakaki, "Right now I need to get back to work on Vajra's Bane." Wyatt simply nodded as he turned and left the lab.

Wyatt's Quarters

Wyatt typed away at his terminal until he brought up the search page. As he was about to finish typing in Soma's name was when he got his first surprise. "What the," Wyatt said out loud as he read his full name, Soma Schicksal. "Weird he hardly looks anything like him," he mused aloud as he pulled up his teammate's file and began to read.

So that's it, Wyatt thought as he began wrapping his head around everything, his mother died during childbirth and people have been giving him # #% about it and the fact that he's basically half-Aragami almost since the day he was born. On top of that, he's the son of the Far East Branch director, so that only adds to the pressure. It's no wonder he never cracks a smile, thought Wyatt as he scratched his chin in thought, hardly any family and no friends, now what to do about it.

He thought and thought about it for several minutes, but nothing came to him. Well I guess this is just part of being a leader, solving internal problems and whatnot. Deciding he needed to clear his head, Wyatt shut off the terminal and headed out of his room. I may not know much about being a leader, he said to himself, but I do know someone who can help.

"Well there ya are newbie," said a voice Wyatt hadn't heard in a while. "Lindow," said Wyatt as he turned to see his unit leader walking down the hallway. "I've been looking all over for ya," commented Lindow as he stopped in front of his subordinate.

"You've been looking all over for me," repeated Wyatt, "I haven't seen you anywhere on the base and most everyone I asked couldn't tell me where you were either, so explain that to me." "Oh that," said Lindow with a slight grin, "Just off on a hot date." "Riiiight," said Wyatt with a raised eyebrow, "I guess it's the kind of lady that can't be kept waiting, even when there's a strategy meeting for what is possibly Fenrir's biggest operation yet."

"Yeah I heard about that," Said Lindow, "I also heard you got paired up with Soma." "Everyone keeps going on about how he's a grim reaper," said Wyatt, "Don't see why, you go out on plenty of missions with him and you're still around."

"Oh that old line," said Lindow, "Yeah Soma's a bit of a complicated person, if you leave him on his own, though, he'll probably be the one to die, so keep an eye on him."

"Oh that's just perfect," said Wyatt, "And here I thought I could get away with having one suicidal friend." "You have a suicidal friend," questioned Lindow. "Oh right you haven't met Mort yet," said Wyatt, "He's a funny guy, heck if it was him leading he'd want nothing more than to be on a mission with a supposed grim, wait a minute."

An idea suddenly occurred to Wyatt. "You've trusted Soma for a while right?" he asked. "With my life, why?" Questioned Lindow. "So I guess he's not as big of a loner as everyone thinks he is right," Wyatt inquired.

"He wants nothing more than for everyone to think he is," said Lindow, "But he cares way more than he'll admit." "Then I think I know what to do," said Wyatt as he turned and started heading for the command center, "Good talk Lindow, sorry I can't hang around longer but I need to make a request to Major Amamiya." "Okay, you, uh, you do that," said Lindow, a bit confused at what Wyatt was thinking as his comrade rushed down the hallway.

Fenrir Command Center

"These stakes are vital to getting the guiding devices set up," explained Tsubaki. The stakes she spoke of where large yellow poles more than twice Wyatt's height. "Once you get the six of them in place, they'll generate a defensive wall to keep out Aragami until the devices are ready to be activated."

"So our mission is basically to get these things in position," Said Wyatt as he examined one of the poles, "And then get our collective ###$% out of there once the devices are done being set up." "A crude way to put it," said Tsubaki, "But yes that is the general idea, so are you still feeling up to it?"

"I'm up for it," answered Wyatt before holding up a finger, "But I'd like to make a request for one extra member if that's possible?" "Who did you have in mind," asked Major Amamiya. As Wyatt was about to answer, the door opened up.

"Alright Nero I'm here," said Mort as he walked in the door, wearing a much less Japanese style version of his outfit with no shade hat and regular pants. "I've told you about that nickname," said Wyatt, "But your timing couldn't have been any better." "You told me you had a mission," said Mort, "And I've explained it before, the nickname is awesome given your, uh, little quirk."

"So this is your extra member I presume," said Tsubaki. "Yep," said Wyatt as he made a gesture of presenting Mort, "I give you Mort, the supposed luckiest God Eater." "'Sup," said Mort, "So what's the mission?" Tsubaki sighed as she went over the objectives again, and mentioned that Mort would be working with him and Soma.

"You told me this would be a suicidal mission," said Mort, "What's suicidal about placing a bunch of stakes around a large Aragami-attracting doo-hickey?" "Well besides the Aragami in the area," said Wyatt, "This guy Soma is supposed to be some kind of grim reaper, but not because he's good at killing Aragami, but because people seem to die around him, a lot."

"Oh," said Mort as he tapped his chin in thought, "One of those lone survivor guys." "Wyatt," said Major Amamiya, "That's not a very good recruiting strategy, telling him a rumor like that." "Actually," said Mort, "I'm hoping it's not a rumor, because Mr. Mort here only does suicide missions."

"You what now?" Questioned Tsubaki. "That's right," said Wyatt, "The higher the chance of death on a mission, the more Mort wants to go on it." "And if what Nero says here is true," said Mort, "I'm gonna have quite the odds stacked against me." "Seriously," said Wyatt, "The nickname."

Major Amamiya simply sighed at that. "Just don't jeopardize the mission by trying to be too suicidal," she said, "I just now got to trusting Mr. Colt here." "Hey don't worry about me," said Mort with a salute, "The only person whose gonna be dying out there is me if I can help it."

With that last word, Mort turned on his heel and walked back out the door. "Seriously," said Tsubaki, "Why'd they let someone that suicidal become a God Eater?" "He just feels that life sucks, that's all," said Wyatt, "He figures this fight's never gonna end so he's been actively trying to get those things to eat him, funny thing is they don't seem to want to." "Well I'll admit I can understand some of what he feels," said Tsubaki as she glanced at her oracle bracelet.

"You know I've always wondered," said Wyatt, "How come you're not out there slicing up Aragami anymore?" Major Amamiya hesitated for a moment before finally answering. "Have you been on the job long enough to see an Aragami being born?" she asked. "A couple times," said Wyatt, "It'd be fascinating to watch if they didn't immediately try to eat us afterward."

"Well I simply arrived at the conclusion that exterminating them completely just isn't possible," explained Tsubaki, "Though I still hope that one day all this madness can end, that's why I've continued teaching the next generation in hopes of passing the future on to them someday."

"I can respect that," said Wyatt, "To be honest you've got a better reason for stopping than I had for becoming one in the first place." "Well you're still finding your footing," said Tsubaki, "You'll figure out what you want to accomplish someday."

At that moment, Tsubaki's communicator beeped. "Major Amamiya, new recruit training is about to begin at twelve hundred hours." "On my way," said Tsubaki as she turned to leave, but not before making one last comment. "Try to get everyone back alive," she said, "Suicidal or not, a good leader doesn't let their comrades throw their lives away." With that, Major Amamiya walked out the door, leaving Wyatt to ponder just what exactly it was he was going to do.

Mission Air Space: Aboard Fenrir Helicopter

Wyatt looked out over the ruined city area as they approached their drop zone before glancing around the cabin. Mort was napping on his left side, while Soma sat across from him. The three technicians they'd been assigned to protect were all sitting in a group at the back of the copter. Everyone should've gotten some kind of briefing, but Wyatt figured if he was gonna say anything, now was the time to do it. He also needed to wake up Mort.

"Alright so I'm certain you all know what the mission is," said Wyatt, nudging his friend awake, "We get in there, get the defensive wall and guiding device installed and get the heck out of there as fast as we can, simple yes, but I can't begin to express how important the mission is, any questions?"

"Well I've got more of a concern," said one of the technicians, "Your teammate Soma, everyone says you die if you're around him." "Is that you're only concern," asked Wyatt.

"It should be," said Soma, "If you don't want to die, you all should just stay away from me." "That's not happening," said Mort, having woken up from his nap, "I want to see if all the hype is real."

"Did your friend suffer some kind of brain damage?" asked Soma, "I'm telling him this for his own safety." "Believe me he doesn't care about safety," said Wyatt, "He's full on suicidal."

"He's what," asked one of the technicians, "You cannot be serious." "Oh it gets better," said Wyatt as he lifted up his goggles to reveal his Aragami eyes. "W-what in the world," said the third technician, "What, what are you?"

"I got these eyes when I became a God Eater, let me tell you they make it really difficult for a good first impression," Said Wyatt, "Hence the goggles." "So that's the real truth then," Said Soma as he took a good look at Wyatt's eyes, "You hide behind those goggles because people started looking at you with fear and hatred and act out being a happy go lucky guy to throw everyone off."

"Not quite," Said Wyatt, "Many people know about my eyes back at the American Branch, but for those who don't they're often unnerved by them, and in a life or death situation the last thing I need is people hesitating just because they're too busy staring at my eyes."

"And personally I think they make you look more like a guy who'd be named 'Nero' rather than a 'Wyatt'," said Mort. "You're the only one who seems to think so," commented Wyatt.

"So you're telling me the ones protecting us are a guy with Aragami eyes, a suicidal weirdo, and a grim reaper?" Summed up the first technician. "That's about the long and short of it," said Wyatt as he pushed his goggles back down over his eyes, "And the grim reaper, as you call him, is the most capable out of all of us, so if I were you I'd show him the proper respect." The other technicians nodded dumbly as the helicopter arrived at the mission area.

The helicopter dropped the guiding device down first before the rest of the crew hopped off, with all of the God Eaters carrying the stakes. "Hey," Said Soma as they began setting up the stakes in a hexagon formation, "Why did you do that back there?" "Do what?" Asked Wyatt as he placed the first stake in the ground.

"You know what," said Soma as he placed one of his own stakes down, "Trying to tell those guys I'm something else besides a monster."

"What's monstrous about you?" Questioned Wyatt, "I mean sure you can be something of a prick, but you're no monster." "How would you know," said Soma with more of an edge to his voice, "You said you've only had those eyes of yours since you became a God Eater, mere months if I recall, but I was cursed the day I was born, I killed my mother coming out of the womb and the same oracle cells you chose to have injected into your body have always been a part of me."

"But that's just it," said Wyatt as he lifted his goggles up, "I may have chosen to be a God Eater, but I didn't choose to have these eyes, just like I didn't choose to have the glaucoma which was originally taking my sight, but as they say fate had other plans, and no one should ever give someone ## about something that's beyond their control."

Soma simply grunted at that. "Whatever," he said as he set down another stake, "Let's just get this done-." "Hey guys heads up!" Called Mort, who was pointing in the direction of a group of approaching ogre tails. "Crap," said Wyatt as he grabbed his damaged God Arc and, "Time to do our jobs."

"Just stay back," said Soma as he readied his weapon. Wyatt was about to protest when he noticed Soma's weapon emitting a glow from the eye-like orbs on his God Arcs handle. In the next instant, a form of purple swirling energy burst from Soma's weapon as he swung it in a wide sweeping motion, releasing a large, destructive slash attack which reduced the ogre tails to near nothingness in a matter of moments.

"Okay," said Wyatt as he looked at the damage inflicted by Soma's attack, "That was awesome, just remind me to avoid standing in front of you when you use that." "We still got a job to do," said Soma, "So get on with it." "Aw man," said Mort suddenly over the communicator, "I was about to charge right at those things too, that would've been like instantaneous death getting hit by that."

"Job to do," Wyatt reminded him. "Yeah yeah," said Mort, "Here's hoping more Aragami show up, this is # # boring." "Try not to jinx it," said Wyatt as he picked up the metal stake he'd dropped.

"You kidding," said Mort, "I probably jinxed it already, now we'll be lucky if any show up." "How are you two friends again," asked one of the techs over the radio. "We tend to agree on most things," answered Mort, "Though Wyatt doesn't long for death anymore, kind of sad when I found that out, but hey no friendship is perfect." "Spectacular," said the tech.

The rest of the installation went off without a hitch, and once the stakes were all in place, they generated a several yellow laser lines which all connected to form a hexagonal wall around the guiding device. "Alright," said Wyatt as everyone stepped aboard the helicopter, "Good work everyone, I believe that's mission accomplished." "Man I wish you'd told me this mission was gonna be this simple, I probably woulda turned you down," said Mort as the helicopter lifted off.

"You may want to wait before you make that judgement," said Soma as he pointed at a spot outside the defensive wall. Oh you cannot be serious, Wyatt thought to himself as he saw the ground shifting in the location Soma was pointing at. "We got Aragami emerging," announced Wyatt as he saw yellow particles gathering at the locations where the ground was distorting. As they all watched, a number of large, monstrous hands shot up from the ground as large, bat-like Aragami seemed to pull themselves out of the barren land. Aragami birth, Wyatt mused as he continued to watch.

The defining feature of these bat-like Aragami were their two long, black arms which were covered in small, wing-like protrusions. "Awesome, Chi You's," cheered Mort as the Aragami closed in on the wall. "Now just hold up," said Wyatt as he observed one of the Chi You flinch when it touched the barrier, "Let's see what they do."

At first the Chi You just circled around the wall, but then they began shoving against it with their large hands, causing the stakes to move in little by little. "Oh no," said one of the technicians, "The wall's gonna fall if they keep that up." "Guess that means there's no choice," said Mort as he grabbed his large, broadsword-style God Arc, "Here I come dead heads!" Mort dropped out of the helicopter as he yelled his last statement.

One of the Chi You looked up and was cleaved nearly down the middle as Mort landed on top of it. "Come and get some!" Yelled Mort as he stood on top of the dead Aragami with his arms spread wide. "Oh there he goes again," said Wyatt, an all too familiar annoyance with his friend creeping into his voice.

"Stay here," Said Soma as he grabbed his own weapon, "I'll take care of this." "Wait Soma," Wyatt said as he tried to stop his squad mate, "You don't understand." But it was already too late as Soma leapt out of the copter and brought his arc down on another unsuspecting Chi You. The other Chi You suddenly turned towards the new arrival, completely ignoring Mort as they did so.

"Hey I'm here too," said an annoyed Mort as he jumped up and down trying to get the Chi You's attention. # # if only he'd taken the time to notice, thought Wyatt, the Chi You were ignoring Mort, they didn't even react when he cut one down the middle.

"Soma since you're already down there, move back and protect the device," Ordered Wyatt over his communicator as Soma moved to take down the gathered Aragami, "Mort will handle the ones where you're at." "You know as well as I do that's a suicidal order," said Soma, "If anyone is gonna die today it's gonna be me before anyone else."

Blast it Soma, he thought. "Pilot get us back over the device," ordered Wyatt as he watched Soma ferociously cutting through one Chi You after another. "What, are you nuts," asked one of the engineers, "If that wall goes down we're as good as dead, do you really think you can protect us with that broken God Arc?"

"Quit bellyaching," said Wyatt, "I'm not asking you to go down there with me, just tell me how to turn that contraption down there on." "Why," asked another one of the engineers, "What are you gonna do?" "Well if it works," answered Wyatt, "Disappoint everyone who's got a death wish today."

"Come on fight me!" Yelled Mort as he cut through another Chi You. It happens every time, he thought, I leap into the fray just like everyone else, even making a lot of extra noise and flair and these blasted Aragami still ignore me. Another thing which added to Mort's annoyance was the fact that Soma had arrived, prompting many of the Chi You to start attacking him with their signature clawing, bear hugging, and even some kind of energy blasting. At first Mort wasn't too concerned and just sliced through another couple of Chi You, hoping to get a reaction.

But soon enough, the tide turned against Soma as he took a hit from one of the Chi You's energy blasts, knocking him to the ground. "Oh like heck you will," said Mort as he cut through another couple of Aragami and moved next to Soma. "What do you think you're doing," asked Soma as he struggled to his feet.

"You're kidding right," said Mort, "All the Chi You are attacking you, meaning this is the kill box right here." "Obviously," said Soma as they both took a fighting stance, "That's why you need to get out of here, or you'll die too."

"Dying in battle with a bad ## comrade," said Mort, "Seems like a good way to go to me." "You really need to sort out your issues," said Soma as the Chi You slowly advanced on them, "You've got plenty to live for."

"That's precisely why you deserve to live more than me," said Mort as he slashed through a Chi You which had gotten too close, "Despite all I have I still gave up, I became a God Eater just so I could get killed and quit dealing with this # # stain of a world, but you've never had the chance to be truly happy to begin with, so why don't you experience that first before you decide to throw your life away."

A confused look crossed Soma's face as he cut through another Chi You. They could never understand, Soma thought, I don't deserve to be happy. As Soma moved to face more of the Aragami, something strange happened. The Chi You all turned around and began heading back towards the guiding device. "You know he's right Soma," said Wyatt over his communicator, "I know your mother would've wanted you to be happy, no matter what you were born with."

"What the," Soma thought aloud as he looked over and saw Wyatt standing in the center of the barrier with the guiding device switched on. "Oh come on," said Mort as he rushed over to where Wyatt was, "Quit movin' the kill box on me!" "What do you think you're doing," said Soma as he watched the Chi You start pushing the wall inwards again, "Turn it off!"

"You've got a clear shot," said Wyatt as he activated the shield on Vajra's Bane, "Use that special move of yours and take these things out while they're all bunched up." "Are you stupid that could kill you," said Soma. "I got a barrier and a line of Aragami in front of me," said Wyatt, "And this barrier is shrinking by the second so there's no time for you to try and get around me."

Damn it, thought Soma as he began charging the purple energy around his sword, but as he was about to swing, he hesitated. "Oh for the love of-," Mort stated angrily as he jumped up and off a Chi You's head, landing on the other side of the next to Wyatt, "You ain't some grim reaper already, you're the hope your mother gave to the world, so swing already you # # wuss!"

That seemed to snap Soma out of his hesitation as he began to swing. "Ah, damn you all!" yelled Soma as he unleashed his attack. "That's more like it," said Mort as he activated his own shield and stood shoulder to should with Wyatt. Glad you're excited, thought Wyatt as the attack was about to reach them, because this is gonna hurt. In the next instant, the blast wave struck.

 **Who will survive, the one with the Aragami eyes, the one with all the luck, neither at all? Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter, but I should let you all know about the erratic release schedule I've had with my stories lately. You see life has been keeping me a little more busy lately which of course means less time for this. So in order to cope with this I've decided to work on one story at a time, meaning you'll get one chapter earlier in the week and another chapter later in the week to the beginning of next week, if that makes sense. For those of you who have patiently waited for each new chapter, I'd like to say thank you my reviewers, followers, and viewers for continuing to give my stories a chance. Be sure to stop in next time as some reveals of Wyatt's past come to light.**


	14. The Hope One Carries

**The Hope One Carries**

Damn it not again, thought Soma as the dust from his attack began to settle, and they actually tried telling me I'm not a grim reaper. "WHAT THE # $," yelled a voice from the cloud of dust, "I call false advertising!" Soma blinked in surprise at the statement. "Grim reaper my ##," said Mort, breathing a bit hard as he lowered the shield on his weapon, "After all that flair, noise and tension and here I am still alive!"

"You are probably the only person who'd be disappointed about being alive right now," said Wyatt between breaths as he deactivated his own shield, "But look on the bright side, you got close to dying." "Don't patronize me Nero," said Mort, "If I'm not dead I'm not dead."

"You have a strange friendship," said Soma as he walked up to his two squad mates, "But at least you're tougher than you look." "We get by," said Wyatt with a thumbs up before falling back and sitting on the ground, "I just hope that was all the Aragami." "It was," said Soma, "And it seems the guiding device is still in working order."

"Oh that's good," breathed Wyatt, "I doubt I'd be able to pull off surviving another one of those energy waves of yours." "You're lucky you survived this one," said Soma. "I'm not," said Mort, "If I was lucky I'd be dead, now if you don't mind all this not dying has made me hungry." With that, Mort stomped off towards the helicopter, stumbling a bit from exhaustion.

"Ah that guy," said Wyatt, "Some days the only time he ever seems truly happy is when he's in a situation where he might die." "Which brings up a question," said Soma, "It's obvious you read my file, so you know what I am, but what I'd like to know is why you think I shouldn't die?"

"Well for starters you're not actually suicidal," said Wyatt, "You only want to die fighting because you believe your existence isn't tolerated by the world, and until recently you thought you killed your mother to be born, but I'm guessing you've changed your mind about that." "Your friend said I was hope given to the world by my mother," said Soma, "You have any idea what he was talking about?"

"If I had to guess," Said Wyatt, "He meant that your mother passed her hope onto you and the next generation, according to your file you are basically the very first God Eater, and from your cells came the necessary tools for more God Eaters to be made, so in essence your mother's hope for a better world started with you." "Can you really be sure of that," asked Soma.

"Not entirely," said Wyatt, "But I do know what it means for someone to pass they're hope to someone else." "How so," asked Soma. Wyatt sighed before answering, "Much of my old team passed their hope onto me, when they knew they weren't making it back." "What happened exactly?" Questioned Soma.

"I'll have to tell the whole story to fully explain it," Said Wyatt as they started marching towards the helicopter, "Now how to begin, I guess you could say it started like any other day, me and my Unit all woke up, ate a good old American breakfast, got our mission, and bantered the whole way to the objective." "Were you hunting something big that day," asked Soma.

"A few Chi Yu's," said Wyatt, "We've dealt with them before so we figured to save some time we'd just split up to find them, and that's when things went wrong." "Bad intel," said Soma. "Something like that," said Wyatt, "We killed most of the Chi Yu's without a problem, but the last one managed to get away from us and fled to an underground subway, we followed after it because the initial satellite scan didn't show any other Aragami."

Wyatt paused for a moment to take a breath. He never liked telling this story in the first place, and this part was especially hard for him, but it was only fair that Soma knew more about him considering what he'd already learned about Soma. "We managed to kill the Chi Yu," said Wyatt, "But then the freaking floor burst open and a Vajra emerged and behind it was a mass of ogre tails and even a couple of Kongou."

"You stumbled into an Aragami nest," said Soma, "Underground?" "It was a nightmare," said Wyatt, "They filled up the tunnel in no time and we didn't have enough room to fight effectively without getting swarmed, our only option was to run, but then that blasted Vajra started shooting lightning all over the place." Wyatt's pace slowed as the images of his bloodied and dying teammates flashed through his mind again, images which had on occasion kept him up at night.

"First we lost Jen in the rubble," said Wyatt, "Then Marcus took a hit of that Vajra's lightning and got devoured while he was paralyzed. Me and Lisa tried getting through the tunnels and back to the surface, but it seemed like every other turn had another group of Aragami in it, and it was when we turned one of these particular corners that Lisa took a hit from a cocoon maiden, I managed to kill the ###ing thing, but by then the damage had already been done."

Wyatt stopped walking then, doing his best not to choke up. "She couldn't run anymore, so we held our ground for as long as we could," said Wyatt, sadness creeping into his voice, "But I could hardly defend myself from so many, let alone both of us, so eventually one of the Aragami got past me and impaled Lisa." "How did you escape?" Asked Soma. "I started blasting the ceiling with my God Arc's gun form," said Wyatt.

"Caved in section after section while running and firing until I ran out of ammo, then I just ran and hid, fighting only when I had too. I don't know how long I was down there, but I do know it was long enough for Vajra's Bane to need its daily dose of bias factor."

"That shouldn't have been too big of a problem," said Soma as he held out an injector with bias factor, "I imagine the American Branch follows the same practice as the Far East Branch and gives its God Eaters emergency injections in case they're out in the field too long."

"Yeah they did," said Wyatt as he held up his own, "During one of the few reprieves I managed to get while hiding, I had my injection out and ready, but I decided not to take it." "What," Questioned Soma with a you gotta be kidding me look on his face, "You realize how dangerous that is, your own weapon might've killed you!"

"I knew that," said Wyatt, "But I also knew that if I just took the injection, there was no guarantee I'd find my way out before I needed more, so I let Vajra's Bane go wild, flinging my devour ability everywhere, consuming one Aragami after the next, to be honest I don't remember much of that moment, but I do know that eventually I punched a hole in the ceiling with my devour ability and used it to pull myself out onto the surface. I managed to inject my bias factor just as the pain was getting too intense, any longer and I probably would've been devoured myself."

"So you risked getting devoured by your own weapon to escape," stated Soma. "Lisa may have been impaled," said Wyatt, "But her final words before I started caving in the ceiling were pretty clear. Live, live for everyone we lost in the Unit and for everyone who remained, so I did what I thought I had to. Now the only surviving members of my unit are me, Mort, and our unit leader Andy who's now in charge of another Unit back in the American Branch."

Soma remained silent for a moment as he seemed to contemplate something. "Tell me something," said Soma, "Despite going through all that you still accepted a mission like this, even though you have a broken weapon."

"All I went through is nothing compared to what you've had to go through," said Wyatt, "And weapon or not I am still a God Eater, even without a weapon I want to help as I can to make the world better."

"Hmph, better," said Soma as he indicated the dissolving corpses of the Chi Yu's, "You've seen what happens when an Aragami dies, the scattered oracle cells simply reconstitute and more of them are born, how can anything get better when faced with something like that?" "Just call it hope I guess," Said Wyatt with a small smile, "Like the hope your mother passed onto you, so quit trying to get yourself killed, or at the very least find someone to pass your hope onto first."

"Well since you keep insisting," Said Soma, "But you'd best not die either, you've got a whole family you need to get back to at some point." "Don't I know it," said Wyatt as they stepped onto the helicopter.

"About time," said Mort, "I'm all for dying as you know, but I ain't got the patience to die of old age." "Just having a little heart to heart," said Wyatt as he sat down in the copter. "Oh thank goodness," said Mort, "I was afraid I was gonna have to keep making bull# # $ speeches."

"So you lied when you were saying I wasn't a grim reaper?" Asked Soma. "Hey I just heard people tended to die around you, does that technically make you a grim reaper, I don't know, but seeing how I'm still alive it seems my speech was far less bull # % than I thought." "Maybe next time," said Soma, surprisingly getting a laugh out of Wyatt and Mort as the copter headed back towards the Far East Branch.

"What's so funny?" asked Soma. "Oh believe me I'm gonna make sure of it," said Mort. "Don't think he's given up just because he survived one mission with you," said Wyatt. "That's right," affirmed Mort, "Today was probably just a fluke but the next mission is operation Meteorite, so let's see how your grim reaper powers go when we're on a real mission!"

"You really do have brain damage after all," said Soma. Wyatt and Mort just kept laughing as they spent the rest of the helicopter ride back making up death scenarios for Mort. And despite the irritation, Soma still had to hide a slight smile at the outlandish ideas of his squad mates. No, Soma thought, not just squad mates, his friends.

 **And at last one of Wyatt's biggest driving forces is revealed, as well as Soma gaining a new reason for fighting as well. And yes I know the chapter might be kind of short, but it was time to reveal the source of Wyatt's nightmare from the very first chapter of this story, and explain a little more about how he's able to remain upbeat even after everything he's gone through. And to my reviewers, followers, and viewers, thank you for your patience, your helpful comments and suggestions. They've helped make this story better every step of the way. Be sure to come by next time as the Far East Branch prepares for operation meteorite and the return of one of the First Unit's members. Til' next time**


	15. Last Minute Preparations

**Last Minute Preparations**

Far East Branch Headquarters: The Next Day

"What the heck's with all the new arrivals," asked Wyatt as he stood by one of the military trucks with Kota and Sakuya. "I know," said Kota as they watched more helicopters carrying God Eaters, "Glasgow's here, India, and even guys from the main headquarters."

"They've called in branches from all over the world," said Sakuya, "Which just goes to show how important this operation is, so we'd best not screw up or it'll be our heads." "Great," said Wyatt, "No pressure then." "Pretty much," said Sakuya as she seemed to be lost in thought, "It's finally begun."

Far East Branch: The Den

"So you're telling me the date of the operation's been moved up," said Wyatt as Lindow finished filling them in on some of the mission details. "Pretty much," said Lindow, "Kind of a pain if you ask me." "Kind of a pain," repeated Wyatt, "Even after having my oracle bracelet removed and then clamped back on, which felt like my tendons were being pulled out of my arm by the way, Vajra's Bane still isn't quite ready."

"Guess that means you'll be joining us on the second day of the operation," said Sakuya. "That's the way it's gotta be apparently," said Wyatt as he crossed his arms, "I just hate feeling like I'm leaving you guys short-handed out there." "Oh that reminds me," said Lindow as the elevator to the Den suddenly chimed, "I do have one bit of good news."

Everyone directed their attention towards the elevator as a familiar face stepped out of it. Varying degrees of surprise could be heard from each member of the First Unit as their Russian teammate Alisa approached them. There were no longer any seeming traces of fear or terror on her face, but instead a calm neutral expression.

"Wyatt," said Alisa as she turned to him and held out the jacket he'd given her a few days ago, "Thank you for your help." "Uh sure thing," Said Wyatt as he accepted the jacket, "But I gotta ask, are you feeling alright?" "Of course," said Alisa as she gave a gentle, and somewhat creepy smile, "My fears aren't controlling me any longer." "Well there's a difference between pictures and the real thing," said Wyatt as he pushed up his goggles to reveal his eyes.

"Holy!" Exclaimed Kota as he tripped and fell back onto the couch, "Dude what's up with your eyes?!" "So it's true what you said about his eyes Lindow," said Sakuya. Wyatt didn't answer at first as he looked Alisa in the eye, noting how they had some sort of a dream-like or possessed quality to them. He was so focused on this that he flinched when Alisa suddenly reached up and put her hand on his cheek.

"I never noticed before," said Alisa as her strange smile grew even wider, "You may have the eyes of an Aragami, but they're far too soft to be the eyes of a monster." "Uh thanks," replied Wyatt, kind of at a loss for any other words. "And I'd also like to say this," said Alisa as she removed her hand and turned to the rest of the unit, "I'm ready to do my part." Alisa bowed in a customary Japanese fashion, a surprisingly polite thing that she'd never done before.

"Uh yeah," said Sakuya, "We're happy to have you back." "A strategy meeting will be starting soon," said Alisa, "We'd best hurry if we're gonna get there on time." "We'll be right behind you," said Wyatt, "I just need to ask Lindow a couple more questions."

"Me and Alisa will save you guys a couple seats," said Sakuya as she followed Alisa to the elevator.

"Okay I'm calling it right now," said Wyatt as soon as the two women were out of earshot, "She wants to murder us all." "It is pretty freaky," said Kota, "She's never been that polite to anyone since she got here, especially me." "I heard that her doctor performed some kind of special mental therapy," said Lindow, "Supposedly a bit of hypnosis was involved."

"Brainwashing, outstanding," Said Wyatt as he threw his hands up in the air, "I know it's an old stereotype to say this, but it figures the Russian doctor would be the one to do it." "Well whatever they did it seems to have worked," said Lindow, "At least on the surface, no way to know for sure until she's back out in the field unfortunately."

"Well just in case, Kota," said Wyatt as he turned to his teammate, "Let's assume horror movie scenario, if she tries to lead any of us into any type of dark corner, alley, room, etc. run the other way." "Speaking of horror movies," said Kota, "Are you ever gonna tell me what's up with your eyes?" "He'll have to tell you on the way to the mission briefing," Said Lindow as he turned towards the elevator, "So we'd best hurry or we're gonna be late." Everyone nodded as they followed after their Unit leader.

Fenrir Command Center: Operation Meteor Briefing

"To the members of all the branches here," said Major Amamiya as the briefing began, "I'd like to thank you all for coming so far, now I know you'd all like to hear the overall strategy but first, I have to announce unit assignments." Tsubaki glanced at her data pad as she began reading off names.

"Lindow Amamiya," She said, prompting Lindow to rise from his seat, "You'll be in charge of the advanced base camp, overseeing supplies and reinforcements." "I do appreciate it," Said Lindow, "And while it is an honor being assigned such an important role, I believe I know someone better suited for the task." "And who do you recommend," asked Tsubaki.

"You've seen his skills over the last several days, and he's shown an ability to lead quite recently," said Lindow as he pointed out his recommendation. "You're referring to Mr. Colt I take it," said Major Amamiya. "You're what now," asked Wyatt, surprised by Lindow's actions.

"He's shown he can lead without his weapon," Said Lindow, "I can switch with him on the second day, I'll be more useful out on the front lines. Oh and this is my personal recommendation, so I think it's at least worth considering." "Very well," replied Tsubaki, "Onto the orders, Wyatt Colt."

"Y-yes mam," said Wyatt as he shot up from his seat, still surprised at his unit leader's recommendation. "As of right now, you shall return to active duty with the First Unit," said Major Amamiya, "You will replace Lindow as the commander of the advanced base camp." "Can do," Said Wyatt with a salute. "Lindow is now leading A Unit," said Tsubaki, as Lindow affirmed with a salute of his own.

"Our objective for this mission is to gather the cores of a thousand large type Aragami," Explained Major Amamiya, "The success or failure of this mission will have a massive impact on the Aegis project, so we cannot lose focus on our goal for even a minute, so listen closely." A murmur went through the crowd of God Eaters as the screen behind the Major came to life with the words 'Operation Meteorite.'

As Major Amamiya finished explaining the plan, most of the God Eaters filed out of the assembly hall to begin preparations for the mission. The First Unit was currently waiting with Wyatt who was about to have a meeting with Tsubaki about the operation. "Nice going 'commander'," said Kota as he congratulated Wyatt on his new position. "Thanks," said Wyatt as he rubbed the back of his head, "But to be honest is everyone really sure I should be in charge of any part of this operation?"

"Would you rather get left here," asked Lindow. "Nope," said Wyatt, "So I suppose I should be thanking you Lindow." "I just didn't wanna get stuck with the boring job," said Lindow as he rubbed his head, "So I sent it to you, at least you'll have something to do until Vajra's Bane finishes getting fixed."

"Speaking of which," said Wyatt as he glanced at the screen, "Once again the luck of the draw has you and the rest of the A Unit dealing with Vajras." "There's an actual reason for that this time," said Lindow, "From what we've learned, Dyaus Pita is supposed to be a Vajra, so if it's anywhere around here the A Unit's gonna encounter it."

"So you're saying we might be going up against that monster again," asked Kota, a worried tone in his voice. "I'll be sure to send you guys some back up if that happens," said Wyatt, "Since I've got authority to do that now."

"No need to worry," said Alisa, who'd been quiet up to this point, "Because I'll kill Pita, once and for all." With another strange smile, Alisa exited the room. "She's still obsessed with killing that thing," said Sakuya. "I don't see how it would be any other way," said Lindow, "She saw that thing tear her parents apart."

"She what?" asked a shocked Kota. "It's true," said Wyatt, "That trauma was also the reason for her mental condition." "How would you know," asked Sakuya. "She kinda told me," replied Wyatt sheepishly, "Mostly because she was the first of the unit to see my eyes, so it just seemed fair to her I guess." "I knew it," Said Kota, "You revealed your big secret to the pretty girl first, what else did you show her?"

"I lost my goggles in the river so I didn't really chose to reveal my eyes, it just happened," said Wyatt, "And the only other thing I showed her was the bloody gaping hole in my stomach, which I'm hoping to avoid this time." "It's just another Aragami," said Soma as he made his way down the risers and towards the door, "We'll kill it like all the rest."

"You'd best remember my order Soma," Said Lindow. "You never let me forget it," said Soma, "But I won't die, and I won't let anyone else die either." With that, Soma exited the room. Guess he's finally coming around, thought Wyatt, which is good considering how much of a handful just one suicidal friend is.

"Mr. Colt," Said Major Amamiya, who was standing at the tactical display next to Hibari, "We've got a strategy meeting." "Right, coming," said Wyatt as he made his way down the stairs.

Fenrir Combat Simulator

"Oh now that's what I'm talking about!" Exclaimed Mort as he and Wyatt watched a demonstration of the meteorite rounds which were going to be used in the operation. "It's impressive alright," commented Wyatt, "It goes up in the air and explodes like a firework and then rains down a multitude of shots on the targets." "Hopefully they got people who know how to aim with this thing," said Mort, "It'd be a real issue if they gave this round to someone whose got a problem with friendly fire."

"I heard that!" Yelled Kannon from several feet away. "Oh no," Said Mort, feigning worry, "I'd be so worried if she could hit a target on pur-YEOOOOWWWW!" Mort yelled in surprise, and a bit of agony as he was struck by a dummy round from Kannon and sent flying several feet away. "Whoops, I was aiming for the guy with goggles," Said Kannon, "Guess that makes that an accident."

"Well at least I'm not a perv anymore," said Wyatt, "But I do have a name ya know." "You should count yourself lucky I'm not using you as target practice today, 'Wyatt'," said Kannon as she headed for the door, "Fortunately for you I've got a meeting with my unit right about now, so shoot ya next time." With a wave behind her, Kannon walked out the door.

"Your friend really does have a death wish doesn't he," said Kota as he stopped firing his arc for a moment. "As long as I've known 'em he has," replied Wyatt. "How is it he's even able to survive jumping into pack after pack of Aragami?" Asked Kota.

"Well he doesn't believe it," said Wyatt as he indicated the semi-conscious Mort, "But the scientists of Fenrir say he's developed a little differently than other God Eaters."

"Developed differently?" Questioned Kota, "How?" "Well there's still a lot that isn't entirely known about oracle cells," said Wyatt, "Take my eyes for instance, but in Mort's case, the oracle cells not only gave him the abilities of a God Eater but also the ability to expel a specialized scent."

"Specialized how," asked Kota. "To all the other Aragami out there," said Wyatt, "He's just another Aragami, and judging by the way they ignore him slicing them up, they think he's a big Aragami." "Wow," said Kota as he glanced at Mort, "That is lucky."

"And it ironically was granted to the guy with a death wish," said Wyatt, "Go figure right." "He sure as heck doesn't seem to like it," said Kota, "Oh by the way, do you think you'd want to come over to my family's place for dinner?" "I'll try to make it," said Wyatt, "There's a little something I need to take care of first."

"What about Mort?" Asked Kota. "He'll wake up in a bit," said Wyatt as he started heading for the door, "Not the first time he's taken a dummy round." "If you say so," said Kota, "I need to ask Sakuya a few questions anyway, see you at dinner." Wyatt answered with a wave back as he walked out the door.

Far East Living Quarters

This is probably kinda stupid, thought Wyatt as he stood in front of the door of his teammate. I know I said this was a possible horror movie scenario, but I gotta make sure everything's alright. Taking a deep breath, Wyatt knocked on the door and then waited. In another moment the door opened as Alisa stepped into the door frame. "Ah Wyatt," said Alisa, "Is there something you need?" "Mostly I was coming to check on you," said Wyatt.

"I thought I assured everyone that I was doing fine," said Alisa as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear. "Well you have to admit it's a little surprising," said Wyatt, "The last time I checked up on you before you went to see your doctor you were, well-." "A little unbalanced," Alisa said as she tried to complete Wyatt's sentence for him.

"More like completely on edge to be perfectly blunt about it," corrected Wyatt, "And just going from that to fine ain't exactly something you normally do just overnight." "I have a very good doctor," Said Alisa, "Psychological issues are his specialty." "Yeah Lindow mentioned you underwent hypnosis," said Wyatt, "Now I don't know a thing about hypnotic suggestion, but it sounds like a temporary fix to me."

"Whether it's temporary or not," said Alisa, "I just need it to last long enough for me to kill Pita, I can figure out the rest later." "And if it doesn't," asked Wyatt, "What'll you-?" "Wyatt please," Alisa said as she suddenly grabbed his shoulders, "I know you're just trying to help, but I have to do this, that monster killed my parents, hurt our teammates and nearly killed you."

"Yeah I got a scar on my stomach as reminder," said Wyatt as he pulled Alisa's hands off his shoulders, "And I'm not saying you shouldn't be out there fighting with the rest of the unit, I just wanted to tell you that if you've got an issue we're here for you." "That's another reason I want to be out there tomorrow," said Alisa, "I still owe you for helping me after we got washed down the river."

"You don't owe me a thing for that," Said Wyatt, "You would've done the same for me." "No I wouldn't have," said Alisa as she averted her gaze, "At the time, I was ready to label you as a liability due to your injury and just leave you, the only reason I didn't was because you could help me find my God Arc, and I owed you for bandaging my wounds." "What about now," asked Wyatt?

"I want to make sure everyone in the unit makes it back," said Alisa, "So please Wyatt, let me do this." "Alright," Wyatt finally relented, "But if you see our teammates in trouble, you help them, even if Pita's there." "Is that an order commander?" Asked Alisa. "No," replied Wyatt, "Just a pleading request from a friend, the order is the same as Lindow's, don't die."

"I won't," said Alisa, "You'd best follow that order too." "Count on it," said Wyatt. He wanted to say more as Alisa retreated back into her room, but he didn't know what he could say. Be safe, he thought as the door to Alisa's room closed, leaving him standing alone in the hallway.

Fenrir Helipad: Just Before Operation Meteorite

Dinner with Kota and his family had been fairly enjoyable. Thankfully, Kota's sister hadn't tried yanking his goggles off throughout dinner as her brother hadn't gotten around to telling her about his eyes. Wyatt had given his teammate the full story about his eyes after they'd finally gotten the little one to go to sleep. In exchange, Kota shared his reason for becoming a God Eater, which was to protect his family.

And speaking of family, Wyatt managed to get a pretty lengthy call in with his own family as he filled them in on his promotion to advanced base commander and what was going on with the operation as a whole. The night passed quickly after that, almost too quickly for his tastes. Currently, Wyatt was sitting on a bench examining his survival knife as he thought about everything his family had said to him, and everything he hadn't said.

"That knife's not standard issue," said Lindow as he sat down next to Wyatt, facing the other way on the bench, "Where'd you come across it?" "My Dad didn't like the standard issue ones that everyone else had," Explained Wyatt, "Said they didn't have enough features for extended survival, so he gave me his own hunting knife, complete with this handy little compass at the top of the handle and a little compartment for stuff like matches and medical stitching."

"You have a heck of a family," said Lindow. "They just want me to make it back home safely," said Wyatt as he looked at the knife, "Though my Dad also wants me to take care of the thing so I can pass it on to another member of the family someday." "What've you told them about life with the First Unit," asked Lindow.

"All kinds of things," said Wyatt, "But most often I tell them what a great group of friends you guys are, and how you've saved my sorry ## countless times, but most of all, you guys have made this place a home away from home for me." "I'm honored," said Lindow as he stood up to leave, "I'd best make sure you make it back alright."

"The honor is mine," said Wyatt as he stood up and held his hand out, "And since I'm a commander now, It's my job to make sure you get back safely as well." "Good luck to both of us then," said Lindow as he shook Wyatt's hand, "Now let's get this operation started."

 **Whew, and so ends another chapter as we begin to draw closer to the finale. For those who are wondering, yes this was the last chapter of set up and the next few chapters will feature the battle of operation meteor and Wyatt's return to action. And thank you to my reviewers, followers and viewers for your comments and encouragement, especially with these last couple of chapters. Be sure to drop by next time as Operation Meteor kicks off, but not without a hitch. Oh and Mort jumps out of a helicopter at the worst time. 'Til next time everyone.**


	16. Welcome Back Vajra's Bane

**Welcome Back Vajra's Bane**

Advanced Forward Base Camp

'Here goes,' Thought Wyatt as he adjusted the headset for the hundredth time. "The devices are now active," said Hibari over the radio. She and Tsubaki were stationed back at the Far East Branch headquarters where they could use all of the command center's resources for coordination.

The Advanced Base Camp that Wyatt was currently in charge of was much closer to the battlefield but still not on the front lines. The main part of the camp Wyatt was in was pretty much a glorified, armored tent with multiple tactical displays set up inside. The display he was currently looking at showed him the locations of all the devices, each God Eater unit, and a massive number of arrows which indicated the Aragami.

"Wow, now that's a lot of Aragami," Said Lindow over the radio. 'That must mean the devices are working,' thought Wyatt, 'Now onto phase one.' "Alright," Said Wyatt as his voice was broadcasted to every unit's radio, "All gun types get that new ammo ready, you fire once everyone's in position."

"This is A Unit," Said Lindow over his communicator, "Ready to go."

"B Unit," Said Tatsumi, "All set here." Units C, D, and E reported in their ready status as well. "All units reporting prepped and ready," Wyatt relayed to Major Amamiya.

"Good work," Said Tsubaki, "Phase one of operation Meteorite is ready to commence, all units open fire!" The report of several God Arcs being fired could be heard over the radio. But unfortunately, that wasn't the only sound being broadcast.

"Geronimo douches!" Mort suddenly called over the communicator.

"What the heck is he doing?!" Yelled Kannon over the radio. "You got to be kidding me!" Exclaimed Tatsumi.

"What's happening," Asked Tsubaki, trying to get a handle on the situation.

"I think Mort just jumped out of the helicopter," answered Wyatt as he looked at his friend's location on the tactical display.

"That's suicide!" Yelled Sakuya, "The meteorite rounds have already reached their apex, he's gonna get bombarded!"

"Don't worry I know what to do," Responded Wyatt as he switched over to Mort's frequency "Hey Mort, take cover."

"You gotta be kidding-," Said Kota before the massive number of meteor-style projectiles began impacting on the sea of Aragami below the choppers. The barrage was unlike anything Wyatt had ever seen. 'I've read books and watched documentaries about all kinds of weapons,' He thought, 'And from what I can tell, no cluster bomb in history was ever this powerful.'

For over a minute, the meteors rained down on all the Aragami at each sector, tearing them to shreds with each impact and kicking up a mass of dust and debris. When the barrage ended at last, there was no discernible movement within the cloud of dust at any of the sites.

"Mort," Wyatt called over the communicator, "Mort come in, are you alive?" Nothing but static could be heard for several moments.

"I don't believe it," Said Kannon over the radio, "He might actually be-."

"ARE YOU # #$ ING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!" Mort suddenly yelled over everyone's frequency, likely hurting quite a few ears. "You're all given a bullet which can cover an entire area in a single attack and you still can't hit a small target that's standing still!"

"I don't # #ing believe it!" Tatsumi called over the radio.

"He's still alive?" Questioned Alisa. "It seems that way," said Sakuya as Mort continued to rant over everyone's headset.

"Yes he's fine!" Major Amamiya barked, getting everyone's attention, "Now get back on task, phase one is completed now begin phase two!"

"You heard her," Said Wyatt into his headset, "All combat units begin deployment. Oh and for those of you who betted on Mort dying in the first five minutes, pay up on mission completion." A mass of grumbling could be heard over the communication channels at that statement.

As the dust cleared on the screen, Wyatt watched as numerous God Eaters jumped from the helicopters. Numerous small impacts were created by their landing as Lindow yelled out for everyone to begin devouring. But the method they used this time was different. Before anyone began using devour, they all pulled out an injector full of bias factor and jabbed it into their God Arcs.

The result was their Arcs going out of control temporarily as a massive devour shot out. "What the heck?" Questioned Wyatt as he watched them devour entire Aragami corpses whole.

"I was surprised when Lindow told me," Said Tsubaki, using the private command channel so no one else could hear her, "Intentionally letting your God Arc go wild a second time by injecting yourself with a different bias factor. Obviously we found a less life-threatening way to employ it, and thanks to that we have a more efficient devour technique."

"It was more a risky guess than anything," Said Wyatt, "I could've easily died by using a different bias factor."

"Well I'm glad you survived," Said Hibari over the same channel as Tsubaki, "Thanks to you, this operation has that much higher of a chance of succeeding."

"Well shoot," Said Wyatt, "If I knew something good could come from me injecting a random substance into my bloodstream, I'd have raided the medical lab a long time ago. Probably could've saved the world by now with the right questionable substance."

"Best not push it," said Major Amamiya, "After all you've still got a job to do out there."

"Roger that," said Wyatt as he returned his full attention to the tactical display. For the moment, everything seemed to be going well. The Aragami were decreasing and the number of cores being collected was rising at a steady rate. Better yet, there weren't any reports about Alisa losing her cool so far.

'Maybe I was worrying my head off for nothin', Thought Wyatt. "Command," Said Lindow suddenly, "We've got some kind of development happening down here."

' # $ ,' Thought Wyatt, 'Shoulda seen this one coming.' "Please tell me you're talking about the good kind of development," said Wyatt, trying to keep the sudden worry out of his voice.

"Not quite sure," said Lindow, "All of the Aragami at our location have started moving away."

"'Moving away,'" Repeated Tsubaki, "Where are they headed now?"

"As far as I can tell at the moment," replied Wyatt as he checked the tactical display, "All of our vicious guests are headed north west, they seem to have lost all interest in the device."

"Hibari," Said Tsubaki as she turned to the red-headed girl in the command center, "Are we detecting any malfunctions?"

"No," Replied Hibari as she ran a scan on all the devices, "All of them are still reading in the green right now."

Major Amamiya thought for a moment. 'This isn't right,' she thought to herself, 'There's only a few reasons I can think of that the Aragami would be turning away from the device right now. There's only one other person who might know what's happening.' "Hibari," She said finally, "Get Doctor Sakaki."

'The Northwest,' mused Wyatt as he scratched his head in thought, 'What in the world could there possibly be in the northwest?' The image of a dam suddenly entered his mind as the answer came to him. "Crap," Wyatt thought aloud as he turned to one of the operators that was manning a terminal at the base camp. "I need an area map of the northwest."

"I've got it here sir," she replied as the operator showed him the map. 'I shoulda ordered everyone here to drop the 'sir' when I had the chance,' thought Wyatt as he looked over the map. ' #$ I knew it.'

"Lindow," Wyatt called over the head set, "The Aragami, they're headed for one particular 'hotspot' in the northwest."

"I figured as much," replied Lindow, "Wyatt, I'm gonna need to talk to the Major."

'What in the world is happening out there,' Thought Major Amamiya as she finished listening to Doctor Sakaki's explanation, 'either a trick or natural phenomenon we don't know about. There's got to be more to it.' "Major Amamiya," Said Lindow over the communicator, "I'd like your permission to perform a little reconnaissance."

"Are you going out there alone?" Asked Tsubaki, already certain she knew what his answer would be.

"We risk losing a lot of cores," explained Lindow, "The others should be able to handle the few remaining Aragami here." Both Wyatt and Lindow waited for the Major's answer as they held their hands to their communicators.

"Alright," she finally said, "Discover what the source of this phenomenon is and report back. But don't be reckless."

"No problem," Said Lindow, "The rest of the unit will back me up once they're done here." 'I hope they'll have enough time to get there,' Thought Wyatt as he looked at the large number of Vajra that were heading towards the settlement. He clenched his fist as he continued to watch the screen. The only thing he could do right now was hope everyone made it out alright.

"Hey Wyatt!" Licca's voice suddenly called over his headset, "I got a little present for ya!"

"Licca," Wyatt called back in surprise, noting some odd background noise, "Where are you, it sounds like you're on one of the choppers."

"That's because I'm five minutes out from the base camp," Said Licca.

Wyatt was about to respond when he noticed a bit of a problem on the tactical display. "Hold that thought," Said Wyatt as he switched over to Tsubaki's frequency, "Major we got a bit of a problem, more Vajra are heading towards Lindow, and they're coming from outside the broadcast zone."

"Sakuya," said Tsubaki, "The situation's changed, you need to head over to Lindow and back him up!"

"I don't think we'll be able to," Replied Sakuya as another problem showed up in the form of more Aragami, "Non-Vajra have started showing up, we can't get through right now."

"How's that possible?" Asked Major Amamiya as she looked at her own tactical display.

"Major," Called Hibari as the readings on device A suddenly went red, "Guidance Device A won't respond to commands!"

"Then is there another unit near Lindow's location?" Asked Tsubaki, trying to figure out just what in the world was happening.

"B Unit is the closet one," Replied Hibari, "But it'll take them at least thirty minutes to make it over there!" 'That's not gonna be soon enough,' Thought Major Amamiya as she grit her teeth in frustration. 'There has to be someone we can send out.'

Major Amamiya stared at the map until her eyes settled on the base camp. 'That's nearby,' She realized, 'and better yet there are no Aragami to block the chopper from taking off.' "Hibari," She said, getting the operator's attention, "Get Licca on the line, we need her to do a pick up."

'This is turning into a disaster,' Thought Wyatt as he watched the Vajra continue to converge on Lindow's location, 'Malfunctioning devices and Vajra heading towards the hidden settlement.' "Wyatt," Said Major Amamiya over his headset, snapping him out of his thoughts, "I need you to aid Lindow."

"What about the base camp?" Asked Wyatt, feeling torn between his command and his want to help his friends, "Isn't there anyone else you can send?"

"I wouldn't be asking if we had any other options," Replied Major Amamiya, "Licca should be arriving with your God Arc now. At this moment, you're the only God Eater in a position to help Lindow."

Wyatt hesitated only a moment before responding. "I'm on my way now," Said Wyatt as he removed his headset and grabbed his jacket. The sound of running helicopter blades greeted him as he stepped out of the tent. As he approached, the door to the helicopter opened.

"I got a special delivery for ya!" Yelled Licca over the sound of the helicopter, "And I hear you need a ride!"

"Since you're offering," remarked Wyatt as he jumped on the helicopter and took a look at the cargo onboard. As the helicopter lifted off, he opened the case to his new and improved weapon. "Hello beautiful."

Outside the Hidden Settlement

"Alright," Said Licca as the chopper approached their destination, "Communication might get cut off while you're down there, so here's the rundown. Vajra's Bane was redesigned with its newly evolved ability in mind, so it shouldn't get damaged even if it absorbs a large amount of energy. Keep in mind this doesn't mean it can't still overload."

"As for your main functions, they work the same but are a bit more powerful than before, and they can become even more deadly once you absorb electrical energy. Your shield will be the best way to absorb this energy, so be sure to use it."

"Got it," Said Wyatt as he pulled out his upgraded weapon. "And one more thing," Said Licca as she looked him in the eye with a serious expression, "I've entrusted this weapon to you so I don't want to see it come back to my workshop without its owner. So come back alive!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Said Wyatt as he opened the side door to the helicopter, "After all, someone's gotta let you know how awesome this upgraded weapon is."

"I'm holding you to that," said Licca. With a final nod, Wyatt dove out of the helicopter with his God Arc in gun mode. Down below, Lindow was beginning to have trouble holding back the massive horde of Vajra which had gathered.

'Gotta aim this just right,' thought Wyatt as he sped through the air towards his unit leader, 'Let's see how the new gun works.' Shifting his weapon and taking aim, Wyatt opened fire on the Vajras below. The difference was felt immediately as the blast rang out, the vibration from the shot surprising him more than he expected. The impact below was even more surprising as it seemed to incapacitate the targeted Aragami with a single hit.

'Holy # $,' thought Wyatt excitedly, not only is my Arc still accurate, it packs way more punch than before. Moving his aim to his next target, he fired again and again into the mass of Aragami near Lindow. Each shot slowed him down more and more as the ground came up to meet him.

"HEADS UP!" yelled Wyatt as he fired a few more shots, raising up a fair-sized cloud of dust as he landed near Lindow, cratering the ground a bit.

"Wyatt," Said Lindow as he wiped some blood out of his eye, "What in the world was that?"

"Vajra's Bane 2.0!" Wyatt declared happily as he turned to the crowd of Vajra and fired at one who'd tried pouncing on him, blasting its head apart. Several more of them advanced on the two God Eaters, only to be shot to pieces by the God Arc's new and improved bullets. When it was obvious they weren't advancing easily, some of the Vajra charged and released their lightning attack.

'Not this time,' Thought Wyatt as he activated the new shield on his weapon. He hardly felt an impact as numerous lightning bolts collided with the shield and were quickly absorbed. 'Now let's try the new blade.' Switching Vajra's Bane to sword form, Wyatt charged forward as more Vajra came climbing over the corpses of their Aragami brethren.

The blade glowed blue as it came into contact with its first target, slicing through the Vajra's hide like a hot knife through butter. And in many ways, it was. 'This is incredible,' thought Wyatt as he cut down one Vajra after another with electrical energy crackling around the blade, 'I've never been able to kill Vajra so quickly before!'

Just as he was about to cut down another Vajra, he noticed one of them was charging up a lightning blast aimed at Lindow. 'I don't think so!' He declared to himself as he jumped back, putting himself between the Vajra and his leader. The Vajra roared as it shot out a full power lightning blast. But, just as before, Wyatt was able to absorb it with his shield, while a few stray shots kicked up even more dust.

Reacting quickly, Wyatt sliced the Vajra into pieces. "Well it's about time you got your weapon back," remarked Lindow, "And a scary one at that."

"I'm just glad to be back," Said Wyatt as he rested his weapon on his shoulder, while electrical energy hummed around the blade, "Now what say we deal with this little pest problem."

 **At last, Wyatt is back in the field and with an even scarier weapon. For those who are a little confused, a good bit of the dialogue is everyone communicating over the radio. I hope everyone's enjoyed the story up to this point, and thank you to my reviewers, followers, and viewers who've kept up with and commented on this tale thus far. Come on by next time as Wyatt and Lindow fight to protect the hidden settlement, and face what could qualify as an old enemy.**


	17. The Dyaus Pita Factor

**The Dyaus Pita Factor**

Fenrir Far East HQ

"Have we determined the cause of the malfunction," Asked Tsubaki as she continued watching the tactical display.

"The tech team is still examining the problem," replied Hibari as she read off the report from her terminal, "But our initial findings show that the devices are likely being hacked."

"Someone is hacking into the devices," Said Tsubaki as her eyes widened a little. "Find the signal and get me the rest of First Unit."

Site of Device A

The scene was mass chaos as numerous Aragami continued to pour into the devastated cityscape from all sides. Sakuya and Kota had to switch between firing and hiding behind cover to avoid blasts from the Chi Yu. Meanwhile, Soma and Alisa had their hands full cutting through ogre tails, zygotes, and anything else that happened to be showing up.

"Sakuya," Major Amamiya called over the radio, "I need you to destroy the guiding device."

"Wait, destroy it," repeated Sakuya, not quite sure she heard correctly, "Why?"

"We've lost control of it," Said Tsubaki, "But if you destroy it, the Aragami should leave the sight and you'll be free to help Lindow. We'll send another team to handle the mop up."

"Understood," Said Sakuya as she took aim with her God Arc and fired, destroying the guiding device.

Outside Hidden Settlement

"I've been doin' some thinking," Said Lindow as he slashed through another Vajra.

"Feel free to let me in on the big secret," Said Wyatt as he decapitated his own Vajra before raising his shield to block a lightning blast, recharging his God Arc.

"There's only one reason this many Vajra would be coming this way," replied Lindow, cutting through the feet of a few other Vajra, "There has to be a sixth guiding device."

"You serious right now?!" Exclaimed Wyatt, carving a Vajra down the middle before switching to gun form to shoot down a few more distant Aragami, "Where would they even hide something like that?"

"Somewhere within the mountains," Explained Lindow as he blocked a claw swipe, "And if we don't destroy it, these things will overrun the settlement."

"Well all we need to do is thin the ranks of these guys for a bit," Said Wyatt as he ducked the jaws of a Vajra and gutted it with his weapon, "Then find that device, sounds simple enough."

And simple it would've been, if the Vajras hadn't suddenly halted. "Now what," Said Lindow as the Vajra moved to the side to let another Aragami through. 'Ah # ,' thought Wyatt as an all too familiar monster came marching towards them, 'sometimes I really need to keep my big mouth shut.' It was him, the monster which had bested more than half the First Unit, Dyaus Pita.

Far East Command Center

"The tech team's completed their analysis," said Hibari, "From the looks of it, the hack is an inside job." Hibari gasped when she saw the location where it was coming from.

"What is it?" Asked Tsubaki as she glanced over at the Hibari.

"The hack is coming from a terminal right here in the base," replied Hibari, "I'm putting it on your screen now." Major Amamiya turned to look at the information sent to her, and couldn't help the surprised look on her face. The terminal being used for the hack, was the one being used by Doctor Ogaruma in the medical wing.

Outside Hidden Settlement

"So that's the monster responsible for killing Alisa's parents is it," Said Lindow as he sized up Dyaus Pita, this being his first time seeing it in person.

"Yeah that's the bastard alright," Replied Wyatt, tightening the grip on Vajra's Bane, "Be careful, this thing's way smarter than any Aragami I've ever seen."

"Well let's what he thinks of being blind!" Exclaimed Lindow as he pulls the pin on a flash grenade and tosses it at Dyaus Pita. Wyatt could almost swear he saw the black Vajra smile as it sprouted its wing-like blades and covered its eyes against the flash. "How did he?" Questioned Lindow as Pita leaped at the both of them.

Both Wyatt and Lindow were able to move out of the way in time as Pita stamped all four paws on the ground were they'd just been, electricity flaring from its body. Wyatt responded by firing his arc at Pita, who leapt high into the air. Lindow attempted to slash the airborne Aragami, but it countered by rolling and releasing a ball of lightning at the First Unit leader. Lindow was able to bring his shield up in time, but was still knocked away by the force of the blast.

'You're not getting away so easy this time,' thought Wyatt as he aimed where Pita was about to land and fired. The large Vajra leapt out of the way as soon as it hit the ground, but Wyatt quickly corrected his aim and fired in front of where it was headed. After a few missed shots, he was finally rewarded with the sound of impacting bullets against Pita's hide.

'Got ya prick,' thought Wyatt as he kept firing, but Pita stopped short and turned towards Wyatt and Lindow. If he didn't know better, he'd say Pita looked surprised. That didn't last long, however, as the monstrous Aragami turned and sped towards the forest of Aragami trees. "Not good," Said Lindow as he and Wyatt chased after it.

As they entered the forest, Pita passed slightly slower in front of some of the trees, turning their veins from an orange to red color. "Wyatt heads up!" Called Lindow as one of the trees shot its spikes at him.

"Woo," commented Wyatt as he narrowly avoided the spike aimed at his midsection, "I thought they only did that when you touched them, unless."

"It's got to be Pita," Said Lindow as they both looked toward Pita, who'd stopped running for some reason, "It's controlling the trees now."

"Really, it's a tree whisperer now," Commented Wyatt as he took a fighting stance.

Dyaus Pita looked over its pursuers for a moment before letting out a roar. Suddenly, a number of tree roots burst from the ground and started wrapping around Wyatt and Lindow. "The # #$," Said Wyatt as he began yanking on the roots, "This was the last thing I expected to be attacking me today."

"Just get loose already," ordered Lindow as he managed to tear through a few of the roots that were holding him. Wyatt tore the ones that were holding his arms as well, but just as he'd started tearing at the ones holding his waist, Dyaus pounced. 'This is gonna hurt,' Thought Wyatt as he held up his God Arc and activated its shield.

But at the last second, a large energy bullet came flying out of nowhere and knocked Pita away. "Wyatt, Lindow," Called Sakuya as they both looked towards her direction, "You alright down there?"

"And why are trees attacking you right now?" Questioned Kota.

"Hey Sakuya, Kota," said Lindow, "Glad you could make it." The roar of Dyaus Pita drew everyone's attention as it attempted to charge again, but was forced to retreat as a hail of bullets cut off its path.

"You brought the rest of the gang too," Said Wyatt as he and Lindow freed themselves from the tree roots.

"I wanted to see this Pita for myself," Said Soma as he came walking up behind them.

"I'm glad we made it in time," Said Alisa as she dropped down next to them, "Are you two alright."

"Well I never thought I'd be pissed at a forest," Said Wyatt as he readied his weapon, "But otherwise I'm just happy you guys are here." Sakuya and Kota also dropped down as the First Unit took up a defensive formation. Pita seemed to be studying them for the moment, likely deciding what method it wanted to use to kill them.

"Alright," Said Lindow, "Here's my orders. Soma, you and Wyatt get tree duty. Alisa, don't attack recklessly, and as for me I'll take Pita head on."

"Kota, Alisa," Said Sakuya as she aimed her weapon, "give Lindow some back up."

"Yes mam," They both said at the same time as they opened fire at Pita. The barrage was intense, but Pita once again displayed its unusual agility by managing to dodge around the gun fire. 'Even with the whole unit,' thought Wyatt, 'this is still gonna be tough.'

Far East Headquarters: Medical Wing

"According to the files," Said Hibari as she relayed the information to Major Amamiya over her communicator, "Daigo Ogaruma was part of Oracle medical treatment in the Russia branch. He was later reassigned with Alisa to the Far East branch for continued medical treatment of her unstable mental and emotional state."

"But so far nothing suspicious," Asked Tsubaki as she looked around the medical room. She had led a squad of Fenrir soldiers to the medical wing where the terminal hack was originating from in order to arrest the 'good' doctor. But he must've caught wind they were onto him and fled before they arrived.

"Not that I can find," Said Hibari, "All we know is the room you're in was where the device was hacked from."

"We'll just have to keep looking until we find something here then," Replied Tsubaki as she turned her attention back to investigating the room.

"Major," Said one of the soldiers who'd been going through the files on the terminal, "We've found something here." The soldier moved over as Tsubaki took a look at the file that had been pulled up. It was a video of him and Alisa viewing a slideshow of Aragami. Doctor Ogaruma was speaking in some kind of hypnotic voice as he showed her a picture of Dyaus Pita.

He was instructing her to pull the trigger of her weapon when she heard a few specific words in Russian. The problem was, while he was doing this, he switched the picture from Dyaus Pita to another target. And not one that was an Aragami but one of her fellow God Eaters. "Oh no," Said Tsubaki, a look of panic crossing her face as she realized what Ogaruma had done, "Lindow!"

Forest of Aragami Trees

"Alisa," Said Sakuya as they continued giving Lindow support fire, "Aim for those wing blades."

"Roger that," Said Alisa as she took careful aim at the moving Aragami. 'Just about,' she thought to herself as her finger began to pull on the trigger. A burst of static interrupted her thoughts as her earpiece suddenly crackled to life.

"Ajin," Said the voice of doctor Ogaruma, reciting a phrase he'd taught her, but something was wrong. "Duva," continued the doctor as Alisa suddenly felt her mind, and her weapon sway towards another target, Lindow. "Touri," Finished the doctor, prompting her finger to tighten on the trigger. But just as she was about to fire, a memory flashed through her mind, about the time Lindow had told her to count clouds.

'NOOOO!' Alisa screamed in her mind as she moved to redirect her aim. The weapon's recoil threw her off balance as she tried to regain control of it. Bullets from her weapon flew in all directions, even hitting some of the trees which had yet to be affected by Dyaus Pita.

"Hit the deck!" Yelled Wyatt as he and Soma leapt out of the way of the tree's extending spikes. Kota was forced to take cover from stray bullets, while Lindow had to move away from Pita to avoid both the Aragami and the bullets.

"Alisa stop!" Yelled Sakuya as she slapped Alisa, knocking her to the ground as her weapon slipped from her hand. "What in the world is wrong with you?!"

"What was I," Alisa seemed dumbstruck as she looked at the scene before her. Everyone was picking themselves up off the ground or moving around some of the spikes which had extended when her bullets hit them. But worst of all, thanks to all of the extending spikes, there wasn't a clear path to reach Lindow without cutting through them. "I didn't mean….That's not what I wanted…I just." Alisa grabbed her head as she once again broke down mentally, asking for her mother and father as her body trembled from fear.

"Alisa what's wrong?" Questioned Sakuya, surprised at her teammate's sudden state.

'D $ it not again,' thought Wyatt as he grabbed his weapon, 'this is the worst possible time for this to be happening.'

"Out of the way you damn trees!" Exclaimed Soma as he cut through some of the orange spikes. But just as soon as one spike was cut, another would spring out and take its place.

"These trees react defensively," Explained Wyatt, "Just randomly slashing through them won't work."

"But how are we gonna get any closer," Asked Kota as they watched Lindow continue to battle against Pita. Wyatt was trying to think of an answer when he caught sight of Pita glaring at some of the orange spikes. In the next instant, they all became red as the ground shook beneath their feet.

"Oh #$ mov-," Wyatt tried to say. But he was just a second too late as a number of red spikes shot out from under the ground. Nearly all of them were yanked off their feet as the spikes somehow managed to crisscross in a way which pinned them to a nearby cliff side. One of the spikes jammed itself right next to Wyatt's head, cutting off his goggles.

"Crap," Said Kota as he tried to wriggle free, "I can't hardly move."

Wyatt was in the same boat as he looked around with a little difficulty thanks to the spike next to his right ear. Lindow was still fighting Pita and the only person who hadn't been pinned was Alisa. "Alisa," he called as he tried freeing himself, "You need to help Lindow now!"

"I can't," Said Alisa, practically on the verge of tears, "I'm too weak, I couldn't save them and now I just-."

"BULL # $!" Yelled Wyatt, not caring how mean he sounded at the moment, "You're not that frightened little girl anymore, you're a God Eater!" That seemed to get Alisa's attention as she looked up at them. "It's too late to help your parents, but you can still save your friends, you just have to pick up that God Arc and fight already!" Alisa, for once, seemed to agree with him as she finally grabbed ahold of her weapon.

"You're stronger than those memories that haunt you, so please, help him already!" Wyatt yelled. Alisa's answer was to fire her weapon at Dyaus Pita, forcing the large Aragami back as it avoided the incoming bullets and retreated further into the forest. As soon as it was out of sight, Alisa switched her weapon to its sword mode and cut the red spikes which had been holding everyone.

"Whew, thanks," Said Wyatt as soon as he dropped down and retrieved his weapon, "Those things were starting to get uncomfortable."

"Wyatt," Said Alisa, the fear gone in her eyes, "I'm sorry, I tried so hard to rid myself of those memories without ever really facing them, I even underwent hypnosis. But you're right, I can overcome them, and I won't let them keep me from protecting my friends."

"Hey I didn't get impaled or lose anything important," Said Wyatt, "So I suppose I can let it slide."

"I just wish she hadn't taken your joke about murdering us all so literally," said Kota. Who immediately regretted mentioning it as Wyatt bonked him on the head. "Ow what," Said Kota as he rubbed his head, "You're the one who made the joke."

Fortunately for the both of them, Alisa didn't seem to notice as she turned to Sakuya. "And Sakuya," She said, "I'm sorry for all of this."

"We can discuss it later," said Sakuya as she held out Alisa's hat, which she'd managed to drop earlier, "Just remember that we're a team, if you need help, just come to us."

"I will," Said Alisa as she accepted her hat and placed it back on her head. And not a moment too soon. A rumbling from the forest signaled the return of Dyaus Pita, likely curious why it wasn't being shot at anymore.

"Well we'd best take care of these trees," Said Sakuya, "Lindow still needs help over there." Everyone nodded in affirmation as they started cutting through the red spikes. But their work was quickly interrupted by the sound of collapsing trees in the distance.

"Oh that's not good," Said Wyatt as he looked over towards the source of the noise. A short distance away, a cloud of smoke was rising as the roars of several Vajra filled the air. "The rest of the Vajra have broken through!" 'And they're heading straight for the settlement,' he realized as he looked back towards his leader. But he already knew what the next order would be.

 **The First Unit is back together, but between Pita and a horde of Vajra, they may be hard pressed to stay a single unit. And just a note here, I've seen two spellings of Ogaruma's name and Alisa's last name, so I've decided to stick with what I last saw on the wiki page. So if anyone knows the actual spelling, feel free to let me know. I'd also like to take to the time to let everyone know that this story will be coming to an end in the next one or two chapters, depending on how long the next chapter turns out. The main reason being that the anime itself ends shortly after this. So for the moment, I'd like to thank everyone who's given the story a chance, and also taken the time to review and comment on it with helpful critiques and ideas. Drop by next time as the ferocious battle for the hidden settlement reaches its climax. 'Til next time.**


	18. And So One Falls

**And So One Falls**

Forest of Aragami Trees

"Get to the dam now!" Ordered Lindow from his place on the other side of the large spikes, "I'll handle ugly over here."

"But why," Asked Sakuya, not quite believing what she just heard, "We can't just leave you here."

"Sakuya," Said Wyatt, getting her attention, "There's a settlement by the dam, full of people."

"There's people," asked Kota, just as confused as Sakuya, "Since when?"

"Lindow's been looking after them," Explained Alisa, "All of these trees here were meant to protect them from the Aragami."

"Is that all true," asked Sakuya, surprisingly still on the fence about what all was being said.

"Every last word," Called Lindow as he continued to fight off Dyaus Pita from behind the wall of spikes, "There's also a guidance device there. You need to take it out!"

"But we can't just leave you back here!" Called Sakuya, attempting to argue.

"Sakuya," Said Wyatt with a hand on her shoulder, "We have to go now, or a lot of innocent people are going to die."

"But," Sakuya tried protesting once again before being cut off by Lindow.

"I'll slip away if things get too nasty," Lindow called as he avoided another attack, "Just try to save me a beer for when I get back."

Sakuya still looked unconvinced, but finally relented. "Just be sure to come back and get it. Now let's go." With a final look back, Sakuya headed towards the dam. The others followed, each one sparing a final glance at the First Unit leader as they did so.

"Wyatt," Lindow called as the goggle wearing God Eater was about to head towards the settlement, "Keep an eye on them would ya, just in case."

"That's a bit of a tall order," replied Wyatt as he turned to leave, "but I'll give it my best." With that final statement, Wyatt sped off to join the rest of the first unit while Lindow stood to fight against the black Vajra.

'I hope we're not too late,' thought Wyatt as he slid down the hillside with the rest of his teammates. Taking a look over to where the dam was, he saw a mass of Vajra breaking through the tree line. They hadn't reached the settlement yet, but they were getting close.

"There really are people down there," observed Kota as they all came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.

"Yeah and the Vajra are getting way too close to them," Said Wyatt.

"We'll need to fight through them first," Said Sakuya as she checked the ammo in her weapon. "Then we can focus on getting the people out and finding that device."

"Then we'd best get started," Said Soma as he leapt down into the fray.

"Hey wait up," Said Kota as he moved to catch up to Soma. The rest of the unit followed suit as they charged towards the army of Vajra. A number of the lion Aragami turned towards the first unit and fired off a few balls of lightning.

"Change up!" Called Wyatt as he and Alisa moved in front, using their shields to block the lightning as Soma leapt above them and unleashed his signature slash attack, cutting a large swath in the approaching Vajra. Sakuya and Kota moved back and to the sides as they began bombarding some of the more distant Aragami while the remaining three began cutting through the ones closet to them.

The sight of all of them fighting was a testament to how much they'd grown as a team. Sakuya and Kota's support fire kept the number of Vajra able to approach the three of them at a manageable number. As for the Aragami which did manage to get close to them, they'd quickly be outmaneuvered as the remaining three God Eaters cut or blasted through them while also covering each other's blind spots.

Whenever Soma got the chance, he'd also use his energy slash while Alisa and Wyatt held off any Vajra that got too close to them. 'Nearly there,' Thought Wyatt as he blocked another lightning blast with his shield before cutting through a Vajra with his superheated blade, 'Just a little more.' But just as they made it to the outskirts of the settlement, the sound of crashing timber caused everyone, even the Vajra to pause.

A terrifying roar cut through the air then as a massive black shape shot out of the trees and moved down the hillside, Dyaus Pita. "But how did that thing get past Lindow," Asked Kota as everyone stared at the black Vajra.

"Oh no," Said Alisa as her eyes widened, "look at its jaws!"

"But that's not, how," Said Sakuya with a mixture of shock and disbelief, "He wouldn't be, he can't be." Wyatt didn't want to believe it either as he pushed his goggles up, wondering for the first time in a while if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But no matter how many times he blinked or squinted, there it was. Within the jaws of Dyaus Pita was Lindow Amamiya's oracle bracelet, with a bit of carved off flesh hanging from it.

Far East Branch Command Center

"So you're saying we've lost contact with the whole first unit," Said Tsubaki as she listened to the latest reports.

"We stopped getting any kind of a signal five minutes ago," Replied Hibari as she read out the data. "I've seen this happen in this area before, it's likely the terrain interfering with the reception."

Major Amamiya thought for a moment before issuing her next order. "The B unit has managed to meet their quota on cores," she said, "Have them split up to run recon on the area we sent the First Unit."

"Yes mam," replied Hibari as she began typing in the commands on her terminal. But as she was about to send them out, one of the alarms in the command center began going off.

"What's happening?" Asked Tsubaki as she watched the readouts for the devices all turn red.

"B unit's guiding device is malfunctioning just like the A Unit's," replied Hibari, "And so are devices C through E."

"They're trying to trap all the units!" Exclaimed Tsubaki as she slammed her fist onto a terminal key board, destroying it.

"It seems a snake has reared its head," came Director's Schicksal's voice over Major Amamiya's personal terminal. In the next instant his image flickered onto the screen of her personal terminal.

"Director," said Tsubaki, finally remembering that he'd been listening in on the operation's progress, "I've read the numbers and the combined collection of cores are at the goal for this operation. So the devices…"

"Yes, destroy them all," Schicksal finished Tsubaki's request for her, "And find doctor Ogaruma as soon as possible."

"Thank you sir," Said Tsubaki as she saluted the image of the director.

"It's the best and only decision we can make right now," stated the director, "It's my greatest hope that you all stay safe."

"Yes sir," Said Major Amamiya one more time as her image flicked off on the screen.

"And besides," Said Schicksal as he thought aloud while leaning back in his chair, "The First Unit still has uses."

The Hidden Settlement

"Lindow, is he really," Kota didn't want to finish the question. Everyone else simply looked on in disbelief as Sakuya collapsed to her knees.

"Hey Sakuya," Said Wyatt as he tore his gaze from Pita to check on his teammate.

"This is all because of me," Alisa said suddenly as she hung her head a bit lower, "If I'd gotten control sooner."

"Alisa that bracelet is not proof that he's-." Wyatt started to say when Soma let out a yell of rage and charged after Pita. "Soma wait," said Wyatt as he tried to stop his teammate from rushing down the hillside. But it was futile as Soma leapt clear away from them and rushed towards Pita. " # , we need to move out," Wyatt called to the others as he ran after Soma.

As he approached, Soma was engaging Pita, and having a hard time of it as he dodged a claw swipe from the beast. Pita wouldn't let up either as it sent a lighting ball at Soma, he jumped to avoid it, only to be swatted out of the air by the black Vajra. 'This is bad,' thought Wyatt as he moved into the path of the flying God Eater and braced himself. As Soma slammed into him, Wyatt's feet dug into the ground as he slid a few feet back, but he managed to stay upright.

"That Aragami's way too smart for reckless attacks," He tried to explain, but Soma just shrugged him off.

"Just get out of my way," Said Soma as he tried to charge off again. Wyatt tried to stop him with a hand on his shoulder, prompting the white-haired God Eater to whirl around and face him. Wyatt was about to say something, but was stopped when he noticed what appeared to be tears in his squad mate's eyes.

The sudden sound of gunfire caught the attention of both of them as they saw Sakuya charging and firing her weapon repeatedly. Wyatt couldn't make out what she was saying, but he recognized the look of anger and sadness on her face. "Sakuya don't just charge it," He yelled. But she wouldn't listen and was mercilessly knocked away as Pita broke the ground with a lightning attack, knocking her away.

Kota and Alisa, angered by the sight of their fallen comrades attempted to rush Pita at the same time. But without a plan, they were swatted away just like everyone else so far. "GET AWAY FROM THEM!" Yelled Wyatt as he switched to gun mode and fired at the black Vajra.

As expected, Pita easily evaded his blasts and fired a lightning ball at him. But he was ready as he brought up his shield, while also reaching for his belt. The black Vajra lunged at Wyatt just as he was lowering his shield, but Wyatt managed to leap out of the way and tossed one of his grenades. Pita blocked the blast with one of its wing blades, while he used the distraction to fire several shots into the ground around the Aragami.

Pita moved away from the blasts only to stumble as the hillside began to crumble where Wyatt had hit it. "Not so much fun when the ground's collapsing under your feet is it!" Yelled Wyatt. The black Vajra seemed to agree as it jumped away from the falling landscape and down the hill where the other Vajra were located. Wyatt kept an eye on it for a moment longer as he watched it tear into some of the Aragami at the bottom of the hill.

'I managed to chase that thing away for now,' thought Wyatt as he looked back towards his unit. Most everyone was picking themselves up off the ground except for Sakuya. She'd crawled over and picked up Lindow's oracle bracelet which had fallen from Pita's mouth during the fight. At first she struggled to say even a single word, but then let loose a scream of pure anguish as tears streamed from her eyes while she clutched Lindow's oracle bracelet to her chest.

Wyatt looked around at the rest of his squad mates. They're faces were all void of hope, as if everyone had given up. 'What do we do now,' he thought as he tightened his grip on his weapon, 'What can we do?'

"Hey mister," called a familiar child's voice suddenly. Wyatt turned to look behind him to see the little girl in the pink hoodie, accompanied by the three other villagers from the last time he was at the settlement.

"Isn't that," Soma said as realization struck, "One of the rejected?"

"Hey it is you," said the settler with a white shirt, "Glad to see you're still alive."

"Yeah I'm fine physically," replied Wyatt, remembering at the last second to lower his goggles, "Is everyone else in the settlement okay?"

"They've been evacuated to the shelter already," replied the settler with glasses, "They'll be alright for at least a little while. So tell us, is there anything we can do?" Wyatt gave a questioning look to that statement.

"We're ready to help in any way we can," Said the girl in the pink hoodie, "So please, tell us what we can do mister." Wyatt's tense grip on his weapon loosened upon hearing this as Lindow's words echoed in his head. 'Keep an eye on them.'

'Well I can't have Lindow giving me $ % from beyond the grave,' Thought Wyatt, 'Let's see if this unit's still got some fight in 'em.' "Well for starters," Said Wyatt as he patted the girl's head, "You can stop calling me mister, I ain't that old yet, as for what you can do, go check on my teammates and bring them over by the buildings."

"Soma," he said, getting his teammate's attention, "Grab Sakuya, we're gonna need help to kill Pita."

"I hope you've got something up your sleeve," Said Soma as he ran over to grab Sakuya. 'So do I,' Thought Wyatt as he ran to scout ahead, 'So do I.'

 **And once again Wyatt fights to defend the hidden settlement from the Aragami. But all will be lost if the first unit doesn't pull together soon. And there's still the problem of Dyaus Pita to contend with. And speaking of problems, I realize it's been a bit since the last posting and I'd like to thank all of you for your patience. This chapter also marks the second to last chapter in this story (If all goes according to plan) and American God Eater will be coming to an end. So once again I'd like to say thank you all for your reviews, comments and views. Come by next time as the First Unit faces their fiercest battle ever. 'til next time.**


	19. Breaking The Jaws of Death

**Breaking The Jaws of Death**

Hidden Settlement

'There you are you nasty bastard,' thought Wyatt as he poked his head around the corner. The black Vajra had fled down the hill after Wyatt had collapsed the ground underneath it. Now it was only a few hundred yards from the settlement tearing apart one Vajra after another. 'It's ignoring the people for now, but that'll change soon enough once it realizes where they are.'

Wyatt retreated back behind the wall as he looked at his remaining squad mates. The looks on their faces were those of defeat as they hung their heads low, looking at the ground or just avoiding eye contact. 'This is gonna be tough,' he thought, 'What exactly am I supposed to say, what can I do now that Lindow's gone?' The little girl in the pink hoodie came walking up then with the other civilians from before.

'That's right, Lindow did leave something behind after all.' "Hey Sakuya," Said Wyatt as he patted the little girl's head, "You remember her right?"

"You're one of the ones that was turned away that day," Sakuya said as she finally looked up.

"After she and all these others were turned away, Lindow brought them here," Explained Wyatt, "He's been watching over them ever since. And he's done the same for all the rest at this settlement."

"Lindow's been watching over them?" Questioned Sakuya, "I never knew."

"He couldn't let anyone know, he had to break a few rules to do this. But Lindow never forgot the real purpose of us God Eaters," Said Wyatt, "Our job is first and foremost to protect people, and today that means finding that guiding device and killing Dyaus Pita."

"But how can we bring that thing down?" Asked Kota as he looked at the monstrosity down at the bottom of the hill.

"By fighting the way Lindow would want us to fight," Replied Wyatt, "We work together, rely on each other, and don't give up until everyone is safe again."

"That does sound like something he'd say," whispered Sakuya as she looked at Lindow's oracle bracelet in her hands. Sakuya then picked up her God Arc as purpose filled her eyes once again. "I'll fight to protect them, just like Lindow would."

"I will too," stated Kota, "We can distract the Vajra together."

"In that case," Said Soma as he hefted his weapon onto his shoulder, "I'll take out that guidance device."

"What should I do," Asked Alisa, her resolve returning to her as well.

"Well someone's gotta help me kill that Pita $ #$," Answered Wyatt as he set Vajra's Bane on his shoulder. Alisa almost smiled at that. With their plan laid out, Soma went off with two of the settlers to find the device while Sakuya and Kota headed towards the Vajra massing near the settlement.

"Uh mister, I mean Wyatt," Said the girl in the pink hoodie, "Where is Lindow anyway?" Wyatt did his best to keep the frown off his face before answering.

"He had somewhere he needed to be," Wyatt answered, "So he sent us to help out instead." The girl in the pink hoodie seemed to accept this answer for the moment as she and the remaining man headed off to help Sakuya and Kota.

"We're gonna have some explaining to do if we get through this," Said Alisa as she turned to go.

"First thing's first," Replied Wyatt as he took off with Alisa towards their target.

"Let's kill this nightmare of an Aragami once and for all!" Exclaimed Alisa.

They hadn't expected to sneak up on the black Vajra. That's why the moment it looked their way they started firing at it. The Aragami dodged out of the way of their incoming fire as it charged towards them. Alisa and Wyatt split off in two directions as they continued firing. Pita decided to pursue Alisa as they moved apart, forcing her to switch her weapon to blade mode.

Pita stabbed at her a number of times with his wing blades, but Alisa was fighting smart this time and skillfully deflected each strike. Sparks flew from the clashing blades as she moved back, waiting for the right moment. "Wyatt now!" Alisa yelled as she moved out of the line of fire. Taking his chance, Wyatt fired numerous times at the Black Vajra.

Pita took a couple of hits, but managed to dodge the rest of the shots as it changed direction and ran towards Wyatt. Switching to blade mode, Wyatt deflected the first couple of swipes before counterattacking with a few swings of his own. Pita backed up a few steps to avoid his swings before leaping right over his head. Wyatt managed to spin around just in time to block its wing blade, but had to use all of his strength to keep from getting knocked off his feet by the electrified blades.

"Alisa you're up!" Called Wyatt. A spray of gunfire from the Russian girl was his answer as Alisa reentered the fight. Dyaus Pita was forced to move away from him as it dodged around the incoming fire. 'Not so fast,' thought Wyatt as he leapt over, using the electrified energy he absorbed to heat up his blade.

Pita instinctively raised its wing blade to block him in midair. But this time his blade began sinking through the edge of the wing thanks to the heated blade. The surprised Aragami flapped its wing outward as it broke the ground with a lightning attack, forcing Wyatt to retreat to a safe distance to avoid the debris. 'I hope the others are holding out,' thought Wyatt as he switched back to gun mode and began firing again.

The sound of an explosion at the dam's lake told him something was getting destroyed. Alisa landed next to him as they both fired at Pita. 'If that noise was what I think it was, we just need to hold out for a little longer.' Time they might not have as Pita launched a lightning ball their way.

Wyatt raised the shield on his weapon to block as Alisa leapt out of the way. Pita used the distraction to rush towards the Russian God Eater, swiping at her with its paw. Alisa managed to raise her shield in time to block the strike as Wyatt quickly switched to blade mode. The Aragami moved out of the way as he slashed at it a number of times, before countering with its wing blades.

'Not good,' thought Wyatt as he just barely managed to parry the incoming barrage of blades. 'It's switched to using stabbing attacks, I can't keep my blade in contact long enough to do any damage.'

"Wyatt hold on," Called Alisa as she fired at Pita. But the Aragami had gotten wise to their current tactics and blocked the shots with its wings. It then swung its bladed tail around, knocking Alisa in the back with an electrified blow, causing her to wince in pain as she fell to the ground next to him.

"Alisa," Wyatt exclaimed as he tried to move towards her. Pita wouldn't allow him any breathing room, however as it raised its giant paw to strike. But a sudden blast of purple energy pushed it back, its wing blade being the only thing which managed to save it from the attack.

"Soma, hey," Wyatt called as he looked in the direction the attack had come. He heard an acknowledgement as a soaking wet Soma approached them.

"I took out the device," Said Soma as he wiped some of the water off his head, "We shouldn't have to worry about any other Vajra."

"No device, I guess that means-," Wyatt was about to say when the sound of extra gunfire answered his question. Sakuya and Kota had just arrived and were forcing Pita to retreat several steps with their combined fire power.

"We took out all the remaining Vajra who'd managed to get in," Said Sakuya as she helped Alisa up while Kota continued firing at Pita. "The rest of the people are safe in the shelter as well."

"That's good," Said Alisa as she breathed a sigh of relief, "That means we just have one last problem to deal with."

"No time to waste then," Said Wyatt as he charged back into the fray, "Let's bring this #$ down!" Soma and Alisa charged with him while Kota and Sakuya split off, still providing cover fire. Pita dodged around the initial gunfire as it responded by sending out several lightning balls. But Wyatt was able to absorb or dodge the ones aimed at him while Alisa and Soma got close, each attempting to use their devour attack.

Pita dodged out of the way of Alisa's attack and attempted to counter with its wings. But Alisa managed to block and flip away, switching her weapon to gun mode and firing while she did. Wyatt and Soma used the opening to close the gap. Pita responded by jabbing its wing blades at both of them. Wyatt blocked the strikes aimed at him while Soma dodged around them and swung when he found an opening. Pita responded by moving away a few feet and slashed at Soma with his other wing blade.

'What the-,' thought Wyatt as he saw one of the black Vajra's wings when it moved away. 'Its wing blade is damaged.' No one else seemed to have noticed yet as Kota managed to score a couple of hits on Pita's wings before Soma forced it back even further with his devour attack. "Everyone, its right wing is cracked," Yelled Wyatt, "Focus on hitting that!"

Everyone else shouted out an acknowledgement of one form or another. As they moved to strike again, Kota and Sakuya fired off two specialized rounds which, instead of impacting, combined and formed a glowing green triangle several feet above Pita. A kind of portal seemed to form in the center of the triangle, drawing in all of the electrical energy Dyaus Pita was currently generating.

"It's absorbing all of the lightning," Observed Alisa, "Now all it has is regular attacks."

"Not a bad bullet Sakuya," Said Soma as the female gun wielder landed next to them.

"It was Kota's idea actually," Said Sakuya as she fired at the now weakened Aragami, "He was a great help in developing it."

"You're saying I owe him one for this," Said Soma, clearly surprised by this, "I guess the pipsqueak's got something going for him after all."

"Thank you mister Soma!" Yelled Kota from a short distance away, somehow managing to hear the conversation of the fire from his own weapon.

"Just Soma," the silver haired God Eater replied as they leapt back into the fray. Now that all the lightning was drained from Pita, they could get in close again. A fact the black Vajra was none too pleased about as it found itself for the first time being pushed back by the onslaught of the First Unit. With support fire limiting its movements, and Alisa and Soma both swinging at its left side, it was wide open for the next attack.

Coming in on its blind spot, Wyatt jumped and swung at its cracked wing blade. Due to its other wing blade being occupied by Soma and Alisa, Pita had no choice but to block with its injured blade. "Cut off its escape!" Ordered Wyatt as he bared down with all of the strength and heat he could muster from his blade. Pita attempted to escape like before, but Kota and Sakuya's barrage, as well as extra fire from Alisa's own cut off any path of escape it had.

"RAAAAAAGH," Screamed Wyatt as he saw the crack on the wing blade greatly expand. Pita roared in actual agony then as the blade finally broke. The sudden release of stress on the wing caused it to swing outward as the broken blade flew a hair's breadth from Wyatt's head, knocking off his goggles. The Blade of Vajra's Bane 2.0 was redirected as it cut the rest of the way down and through where the wing blade was connected, slashing off an additional wing blade as it went.

Wyatt hit the ground and rolled, the rock solid earth not doing him any favors as he moved away from Pita. As he slowed, Wyatt rolled up to a half-kneeling position, finally getting a good view of their handiwork. Half of Dyaus Pita's right wing had been cut off, meaning both its attack and defense would be weakened. But there was one downside to this. Dyaus Pita was pissed.

So pissed in fact that it forcibly generated a much more powerful form of its lightning, red lightning. "Ah #$ $ move away!" Wyatt tried to say as the massive electrical surge shot up into the air, overloading the airborne triangle and destroying it. With a roar, Pita unleashed its regained lightning ability with newfound fury as lightning seemed to strike from the sky all around it.

Kota and Sakuya both took a hit from the lightning while Alisa and Soma took some vicious hits from Pita's giant claws as it raced by. Wyatt just had enough time to switch his weapon to gun mode as he fired off as many shots as he could. Pita paid no heed to his shots this time as it charged forward, blocking its face with its wing blade. Wyatt tried adjusting to fire at its legs, but the black Vajra closed the distance too quickly and swung its wings down at him.

Wyatt was only able to dodge the first couple of attacks before he was forced to raise his shield over his head and block the left wing blade. Wyatt strained with every last bit of oracle celled muscle he had as Pita pushed down on him with monstrous strength. Vajra's Bane was absorbing so much electrical energy the blade was beginning to heat up without him having to even activate it.

'Only one chance,' thought Wyatt as he readjusted his stance, 'gotta slide out from under this.' Twisting his body and his weapon, Wyatt slid out from under the blade, watching sparks fly as the Aragami's wing scraped off his shield. But his success was short-lived as Pita quickly swung its paw, catching Wyatt in the back with its claws and sending him flying several feet away to land by Alisa and Soma.

'I really hate déjà vu sometimes,' thought Wyatt, his vision swimming as he struggled to roll over, 'This is the second time I've been swatted by that thing's paw.' His back stung as blood slowly flowed out of the wounds created by Pita's claws. His body also ached from all the fighting and beat downs he'd endured today. 'I haven't got much left in me,' he realized as he struggled to his feet, using Vajra's Bane as a crutch to stand.

Their tactics had had one fortunate effect on Pita. Despite its anger at losing most of its wing, the black Vajra was now wary of them and seemed to be waiting on their next move. Wyatt took this short moment of reprieve to notice that the rest of the First Unit was also struggling to their feet. He also noticed that his God Arc was still crackling with a fair bit of the electrical energy it had absorbed. 'I got one last trick I can try,' thought Wyatt as he switched to an alternate fire setting on his weapon, 'I never used this setting on my old one because it'd only give me a few powerful shots, but given the circumstances.'

"Alisa," Wyatt said, "Send the word out on our ear pieces, I need an opening."

"What are you gonna do?" Asked Alisa as she finally got to her feet.

"I'm gonna get its attention first, then you guys split its focus until it gives me a shot at its ugly bearded face," Replied Wyatt as he slowly advanced forward.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Said Alisa as she relayed the plan to everyone else.

"Yeah me too," replied Wyatt as he began to run at Dyaus Pita, "Let's go!" Wyatt charged in first, drawing the black Vajra's attention. Sudden bursts of gunfire from Sakuya and Kota diverted its attention then as the two gunners charged at it as well. Pita responded by shooting more lightning in their direction. Kota took a hit and fell as Alisa rushed in with her blade and was batted away by Pita's wing.

Sakuya just managed to get in a little closer only to be swatted away by Pita's bladed tail. The last to fall was Soma as he used the time given him to charge up and unleash his wave attack one more time. But Pita's wing and body managed to hold up against the impact of the attack before it charged forward and slammed its leg into Soma, rag dolling him across the field. Pita looked around then at the downed members of the First Unit and seemed to realize something. Where had the other one gone?

Suddenly, a gun barrel poked out of the dust kicked up by Soma's attack as Wyatt he aimed point blank at Dyaus Pita's face. 'Got ya this time you bastard,' thought Wyatt as he was about to pull the trigger. But at the last second, Pita's tail came flying out of nowhere, knocking his weapon downward. Wyatt was sent flying into the air as his weapon discharged beneath him.

Time slowed to a crawl then as Wyatt twisted in the air. 'No!,' he thought to himself as he gritted his teeth and aimed his weapon the other way, 'You are not getting away this time!' With a shout of determination, and a final thought about how stupid this was, Wyatt fired his God Arc. The recoil from the blast sent him flying into the surprised Aragami's half open mouth, causing it to recoil from the sudden obstruction in its throat.

"WYATT!" Yelled Alisa as the rest of the First Unit looked on in abject horror. The moment didn't last long, however, as a blast suddenly shot out of Pita's back, spraying blood and bone everywhere. Dyaus Pita screeched in anguish as what seemed to be confusion, and actual terror crossed its face. Two more shots fired out of it, one of which managed to blast apart a good bit of the protective covering on its head, at last exposing its core.

'This is our chance,' thought Alisa as she forced herself to her feet, 'We can't waste this.' With a battle cry, Alisa charged forward at the now downed Aragami. "You can't have him!" She yelled as she slammed her weapon into the monster's core, "I won't let you take anyone else!" She continued hitting the core with her blade, over and over again. She lost count of how many times she'd hit the core, or how long she'd been hitting it as she continued to break it apart more and more. She continued hitting it even after it was long destroyed.

She didn't stop until she felt her weapon hit dirt, finally noticing that it was dissolving into glowing specks of energy. 'It's finally over,' she thought to herself as she collapsed to her knees, 'Dyaus Pita was dead at last.'

 **Ding Dong the Pita's dead, the Pita's dead, ding dong, Dyaus Pita's dead. As for Wyatt's fate, well for the moment use your imagination. On a more serious note, hello again everyone, I hope you liked this chapter, and a slight apology for it getting out a bit late, but holiday stuff must come first. And before anyone asks, yes there will be one more chapter after this, the epilogue. As I mentioned a couple chapters prior, the anime ends at around this point, and since I'm working on two other stories besides just this one I've decided to bring this one to a close. Once again I'd like to thank you all for reading, commenting, and reviewing this story, it's helped me improve this story greatly. So stop by one more time for the epilogue.**


	20. Epilogue: The Leader of the First Unit

**Epilogue: Leader of the First Unit**

Hidden Settlement

Alisa sat and watched as the monster who'd haunted her for five years finished dissolving. 'I hate that it took me this long to realize it,' she thought to herself, 'That I wasn't alone in my fight. Now it's done, my parents are avenged. Everyone is finally safe from, oh no!' Realization struck her at that moment as she glimpsed a blood-soaked heap on the ground.

"Wyatt!" Yelled Alisa as she rushed over to her downed comrade. Upon reaching him, Alisa kneeled down and turned him over, trying to get an idea of his condition. "What were you thinking you tupitsa," She thought aloud as she checked his pulse. It was terribly weak. "I wanted that monster dead but not this bad. Not if it meant more of my friends had to die, so wake up already!"

The prone God Eater refused to respond to her pleas so Alisa listened to his breathing. 'He's probably swallowed too much of that thing's blood,' she thought as she did her best to remain calm. 'First thing's first, clear the airway, then start compressions.' She started the first few steps of CPR as she pressed down on his heart repeatedly.

"Come on you kolot," Said Alisa, the stress causing her to shift to her native tongue, "If you can come back from washing down a river this should be no problem." She stopped then, dreading the next part, but proceeding anyway as she bent down, ready to give Wyatt a rescue breathe. But as her lips were about to meet his, Wyatt woke up. Or rather he coughed up a good bit of blood on Alisa, causing her to recoil in surprise.

"Oh," coughed Wyatt as he weakly wiped the blood from his eyes, "Oh what the heck, Oh that was so $ $ing nasty."

"WYATT!" Alisa exclaimed, in a surprisingly happy voice as she pulled him into a hug.

"Uh hey Alisa," Said Wyatt as he slowly regained his senses, thankful that he was covered in enough blood to hide his currently red face. The Russian God Eater suddenly seemed to remember something as she quickly released Wyatt and recomposed herself.

"It, uh, seems you're still alive," Said Alisa, now trying to act professional. Wyatt could only shrug a bit as he managed to sit up. By this point, the rest of the First Unit had gathered around them. Everyone had a look of relief or triumph etched across their features.

"Well that had to be the most unusual approach to killing an Aragami I've ever seen," Said Sakuya with an amused smile.

"You call that an approach," Said Wyatt as he fell back onto the ground, "Oh gosh, what was I thinking. That had to be the worst idea I've ever had, jump down an Aragami's throat. Who does that?"

"I'm getting queasy just thinking about it," Said Kota, "What is that even like, diving down an Aragami's throat?"

"Have you even been listening," Said Wyatt, "It was $ %ing terrible. I mean what were the odds of me not being swallowed, like a ten percent chance?"

"It's probably best if we don't think about that," Said Soma, "Though I believe congratulations are in order. I not sure even Lindow would've tried something that fool hardy."

"Uh thanks," replied Wyatt, "I think that was supposed to be a compliment."

"Well you survived this particular idea," Said Alisa, "What are the odds of you trying anything else like that?"

Wyatt smiled a bit as he wiped some more of Pita's blood off of his face. "Well how about this. First we all get our ##$% back to headquarters so we can get cleaned up. After that." Wyatt shrugged a bit before finishing his sentence. "We'll just have to see what comes our way next."

Far East Headquarters: Some Time Later

Director Schicksal was sitting at his desk, reading the reports from Operation Meteor when a knock on the door drew his attention. "Enter," Said the Director without looking up from his reports. The door slid open then to reveal a scientist wearing glasses and a brown robe. "Ah, Doctor Sakaki, welcome back to the Far East Branch."

"Always a pleasure Johannes," replied Sakaki, "I just finished examining Soma. I must say, he's grown quite a bit since the last time I saw him. No doubt thanks to his friends."

"That does remind me," Said Director Schicksal as he handed a red talisman with Japanese writing on it to Sakaki, "I'd been meaning to return that to you."

"This is the charm I gave to you for when Soma was born," Said Sakaki as he examined it.

"It is indeed," replied Schicksal, "You placed a type of bias factor within it for repelling the Aragami. It may have been a prototype, but I was able to use it to help create the wall which is currently surrounding this branch. Thanks to that, I've achieved my current position."

"Far East Branch Director is a bit of a lengthy title though," Said Sakaki, "I hope you don't mind me simply referring to you as Director."

"It's simply a title and nothing more," replied Schicksal as he picked up a data pad and handed it to Sakaki. "The power that comes with that title, however, has allowed me the resources which will ultimately be the salvation of mankind."

Dr. Sakaki took a moment to examine the documents on the data pad. "The Aegis Project," Said Sakaki, "A massive shelter designed to house all of humanity." A look of disappointment crossed the Doctor's features. "You know as well as I do that Aragami evolve. This shelter will offer only temporary protection at best."

"You know me better than that," Said Schicksal, "The shelter design is merely a cover for the true purpose of the Aegis project. Check out the next file." Sakaki did as he was asked and moved to the next page on the files. His eyes widened at what he saw.

"You're telling me that the Aegis project is actually an Arc project," said Dr. Sakaki. "You're building a rocket which will be used to send certain 'selected' humans into space until the devouring apocalypse has passed?"

"Precisely," Said Schicksal, "Very soon now, the earth will be consumed by an Aragami mass which will cover the entire planet. That rocket will spirit humanity into space. It will keep humanity safe and allow them to return to a barren, new planet."

"But this rocket is only capable of housing a thousand people," Sakaki pointed out.

"Yes," said Schicksal, "I believe that painting on the wall over there makes the best analogy."

"The one of two people lost at sea, hanging on to some driftwood," Observed Sakaki as he looked at the painting Schicksal had indicated. "The board won't hold them both, but if one of them lets go, the other will survive. I believe it's called the Plank of Carneades. "

"You are correct doctor," Said the Director, "And in much the same way we must make a sacrifice to save the rest of humanity."

"This sacrifice is the majority of the remaining human population you're talking about," said Sakaki. "Thousands of others will die to save a select few."

"And knowing this, will you try to stop me," asked Schicksal, "Or simply turn and run as you've done before." Dr. Sakaki was silent for a moment before answering.

"I can only consider myself an observer at this point," Said Sakaki as he adjusted his glasses. "I am not a part of your decision-making. Instead, I will search for a way to save all of mankind."

"I take it you already have some kind of answer of your own," Said Schicksal, "Or at least you think you're close to finding one."

"With the continued evolution of Aragami," Explained Sakaki, "It should only be a matter of time before they gain a human-like intellect."

"You're implying that we may actually be able to communicate with them," asked the Director, skepticism obvious in his voice.

"Precisely," Said Sakaki with another adjustment of his glasses. "I believe that in the not too distant future, we'll be able to coexist with the Aragami." Schicksal, surprisingly smirked at this statement, before outright laughing at the proposition.

"You always did spend too much time dreaming," Said Director Schicksal as he stood up from his chair. "If there's one thing you should know by now. The Aragami are little more than monsters, and so we must exterminate them like the monsters they are to insure our future."

"I swear Johannes," Said Sakaki, "You are the most pessimistic person that I know."

"Then let us put that to the test shall we," Said Schicksal, "My Aegis Project and its goal of bringing humanity back to a new world. Or your insanely optimistic dream of coexisting with the Aragami, which will come to pass first?"

"Very well," Said Sakaki as he turned to leave, "Let the race to humanity's salvation begin."

The Living Quarters of Wyatt Colt

The last vestiges of sunlight shined through the window of Wyatt's room as the sun set. It was a breathtaking sight to be sure, but unfortunately, the two currently sharing the room had another matter. The terminal in the room had started blinking, indicating a call was coming in. One of the occupants of the room, noticing the call, decided to go ahead and hit the answer button. The rest of the screen came to life as an image of Wyatt's Mother and Father appeared. Their expressions shifted from neutral to surprised when they noticed that it wasn't their son answering the call.

"Oh hello there," Said Wyatt's mother, "I apologize, we thought this was Wyatt's room we were calling."

"Oh it is actually," said the girl who'd answered the call, "He's just a little indisposed at the moment."

"That's a bit typical," Said Wyatt's father, "So who might you be young lady? And if you don't mind my asking, why are you in my son's room?"

"Oh of course, I've never gotten the chance to introduce myself," Said the girl as she brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. "My name is Alisa Ilinichina Amiella, but most people simply refer to me as Alisa."

"Oh you're the Russian girl Wyatt's mentioned, well, a number of times," Said Wyatt's mother.

"Does this mean I have the pleasure of addressing Mr. and Mrs. Colt," Asked Alisa.

"You do indeed young lady," Said Wyatt's father, "And I must say you're far more polite than Wyatt led us to initially believe."

"For the last time Dad, that was a bad first impression," Said Wyatt as he walked out of the bathroom without his signature jacket on and into view of the camera. "I know I've said plenty of nice things since then."

"Has he," asked Alisa with a mischievous smile, "I mean he says plenty of nice things to me when I'm around."

"Oh he just goes on and on about you," Answered Wyatt's mother.

"It's normally complaints," Added Wyatt's father before he leaned closer to the screen. "To be honest I think he likes you more than he lets on."

"Dad!" Exclaimed Wyatt, "I do so say nice things about her!"

"I don't know," Said Wyatt's dad, "I remember you told me she was getting on to you about coming back covered in blood again."

"Only because he got some of it on me," Said Alisa as she pointed to her shirt. "The skirt might look okay with more red on it but I don't need splotches on my shirt."

"Speaking of clothing," Said Wyatt's Mother, "Why exactly do you have his jacket on around your shoulders."

"Oh this," Said Alisa, suddenly becoming self-conscious, "This room is, uh, under one of the main cooling units. So it's extra cold, and your son was just being a gentleman."

"It must be freezing then," Said Wyatt's mother, "Though I'm curious why Wyatt is still in a short-sleeved shirt if it's really that cold." Wyatt was about to answer when his Father interrupted.

"Didn't you bring a coat down with you for when it got cold?" Questioned Wyatt's Father. "Seems like that would've been a good idea for one of you to throw on."

"And are those your goggles she's wearing son," Asked Wyatt's mother, "I don't think those will help her much with the cold."

"Yeah well you see-." Wyatt tried to think of something to say as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. Fortunately, Alisa was one step ahead of him.

"Oh no we're gonna be late for the induction ceremony!" Alisa exclaimed as she checked the time.

"Oh crap, that's right!" Said Wyatt as he grabbed his boots, "I just remembered we're inducting a new leader for the First Unit. The ceremony is happening in just a few minutes, so we really gotta go!"

"Oh, well take care son," Said Wyatt's mother, "We'll call back later."

"And try not to give this new leader of yours too much trouble," Said Wyatt's Father.

"Got it," Said Wyatt as he finished putting his boots on, "I love y'all, talk to ya later, bye!" Wyatt's parents waved good bye in response before their image disappeared from the screen. As soon as it was gone, they both breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Your parents are impressively perceptive," Said Alisa as she located her own boots and put them on. "I didn't expect them to interrogate us like that."

"Yeah, those are my parents," Said Wyatt, "I gave up trying to lie to them about stuff I knew I wasn't supposed to be doing years ago, or so I thought. They were always good at spotting little lies."

"I'd best remember that for next time," Said Alisa as she moved off of Wyatt's bed and stood up. "In the meantime, we really do need to get to the induction ceremony."

"You know we still got a half hour before we actually need to be there," Said Wyatt.

"Yes but you need to be there a bit earlier than everyone else, remember," Said Alisa, "You've got that new jacket you need to pick up along the way. And, it sets a good example for everyone else."

"Well there is that," Said Wyatt as he turned around and picked up Alisa's beret-style hat. "But I'm gonna need my goggles back first." Alisa shook her head and smiled at that as she removed the goggles from her head and tossed them to him. Wyatt tossed her beret to her as he snatched the goggles out of midair.

"Oh by the way," Said Wyatt as he turned to leave, "I think it's your turn to make sure our newest squad member makes it to the ceremony on time."

"Wonderful," Said Alisa with a roll of her eyes, "I'm sure he'll be in his new favorite place."

"Only one way to find out right," Said Wyatt as he walked through the doorway, "See ya there." Wyatt heard Alisa respond with a farewell of her own as he made his way down the hallway. 'It's been a heck of a week,' he thought as he turned a corner. Operation Meteorite, despite a few setbacks from Ogaruma's interference, proved a success. The Aegis Project was now progressing at a much faster rate than it initially started.

As for the 'good' Doctor Ogaruma. According to the Director, who'd given a speech after the end of Operation Meteorite, he'd been found fleeing the base via underground passageways. The story was that he tried to escape above ground once he was discovered and was quickly torn to shreds by a passing group of Aragami. A fitting end, Wyatt guessed, though his paranoid side told him it was a bit too convenient. As for his motivations in getting Lindow killed, no one really knew. Not that it really mattered at this point, the damage was done.

That had been the hardest part of the week for all of them. The funeral of the First Unit leader. Wyatt was pretty sure not a single person in attendance hadn't shed tears for him. Even Soma shed a few. Lindow's body had never been recovered, so they dedicated a tombstone with his name on it and used a picture of him at the funeral. But even if there had been a body, Wyatt still probably wouldn't have been able to believe he was dead. He still couldn't quite believe it now.

But the First Unit had to keep moving forward, and so, a new leader was being selected. Or rather had been selected. Wyatt only hoped the new guy was up for the job. Alisa seemed to think he'd do a good job. 'I only hope you're right about that,' thought Wyatt.

Far East Branch Command Center

The familiar sound of operators typing away could be heard as Tsubaki stood in front of the tactical map. But her attention was focused on the three God Eaters who were currently standing in the room. Kota Fujiki, who'd improved greatly since joining the First Unit. Though he still suffered from the occasional nervous blunder. Soma Schicksal, who'd finally come out of his angry shell, to a degree anyway.

Then, of course, there was the First Unit's second in command, Sakuya Tachibani. She'd taken Lindow's death the hardest out of all of them. But she'd found a new purpose in the form of aiding the refugees in the hidden settlement, looking after them like Lindow had. She still had to keep it a secret, but it was now a secret shared amongst the whole First Unit.

All of them had been gathered for the commissioning of the new unit leader. Of course, they were still missing a couple members. "It's a bit unusual for Alisa to be running late," Said Sakuya, "Usually her and Wyatt are early, or at least right on time."

"I don't know," Said Kota, "They've been spending a lot of time together lately. They might've gotten carried away with some of their 'activities.'"

"Knock it off Kota," Said Soma, "They're more responsible than that. And if you haven't noticed, we're still missing one other member." Kota was about to respond to that when the door to the command center opened. Everyone's eyes turned to the entrance to see Alisa, dragging in the First Unit's latest addition to their team, Mort.

"You're sure this can't wait," Said Mort as he was being drug along, "Kannon's got a mission soon, which means there won't be hardly anyone at the practice range for a few hours. Who's gonna shoot at me once she leaves?"

"You'll have plenty of time to get shot at later," Said Alisa as she pushed him into the line with the rest of the First Unit, "Right now we have more pressing matters then your latest attempt to get yourself killed."

"You sure about that," Questioned Mort as he stood in line, "I take the matter of my, hopefully, imminent demise very seriously."

"I'm sure it can wait for just a few more minutes," Said Sakuya as she turned back to Major Amamiya, indicating they were finally ready. With a nod, Tsubaki gave the signal for the final member of the First Unit to step forward. "Does the new First Unit leader have anything to say?"

"I might have something," Said Wyatt as he stepped forward from the doorway between the stairs. He was wearing a newer version of his jacket with a Fenrir insignia on the back. He also had an insignia on each fingerless glove. The last addition was a new pair of goggles, which were currently pushed up on his forehead for the occasion, allowing everyone around to see his Aragami eyes.

"I got three standing orders for everyone," Said Wyatt, in as confident a tone as he could muster. "First off, try your best not to die, even you Mort. Second off, if you're about to die, retreat and find a better approach. Finally, when possible, help change the world for the better." The rest of the First Unit responded to this with a salute. Wyatt saluted back before proceeding down the stairs to join the rest of his unit, or rather, the rest of his friends. And so the First Unit was complete again, ready to take on their next mission.

 **And that, as they say, is a wrap as our hero Wyatt takes his place as the new leader of the First Unit. I'd like to thank you all, my reviewers, followers, and viewers for reading, commenting, and reviewing on this story. You've all made it better then I hoped it could be and I hope this ending is to everyone's liking. For now, I have no plans to continue the adventures of Wyatt Colt as this is the same place where the anime ended, so there will indeed be a few unanswered questions. Despite that, this has been an enjoyable story to write and I hope you've all enjoyed the ride. If you liked my writing on this story, you can check out a couple of my other fics as well. Thank you all once again.**


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